Realistic cross-platform haptic applications using freely-available libraries

This paper describes the development of a generic framework for implementing realistic cross-platform haptic virtual reality application, using the Sensable´s PHANToM haptic device. Here the term cross-platform refers to two of the most popular operating systems: Windows and Linux. Currently available free-for-noncommercial-use software development kits (SDKs) deal with a single haptic interaction point (HIP), i.e. the tip of the haptic probe. However, many applications as path planning, virtual assembly, medical or dental simulations, as well as scientific exploration require object-object interactions, meaning any part of the complex 3D object attached to the probe collides with the other objects in the virtual scene. Collision detections and penetration depths between 3D objects must be quickly computed to generate forces to be displayed by the haptic device. In these circumstances, implementation of haptic applications is very challenging when the numbers, stiffness and/or complexity of objects in the scene are considerable, mainly because of high update rates needed to avoid instabilities of the system. The proposed framework meets this high requirement and provides a high-performance test bed for further research in algorithms for collision detection and generation of haptic forces.