Haptic rendering of objects with rigid and deformable parts

In many haptic applications, the user interacts with the virtual environment through a rigid tool. Tool-based interaction is suitable in many applications, but the constraint of using rigid tools is not applicable to some situations, such as the use of catheters in virtual surgery, or of a rubber part in an assembly simulation. Rigid-tool-based interaction is also unable to provide force feedback regarding interaction through the human hand, due to the soft nature of human flesh. In this paper, we address some of the computational challenges of haptic interaction through deformable tools, which forms the basis for direct-hand haptic interaction. We describe a haptic rendering algorithm that enables interactive contact between deformable objects, including self-collisions and friction. This algorithm relies on a deformable tool model that combines rigid and deformable components, and we present the efficient simulation of such a model under robust implicit integration. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.