Experimental Evaluation of Haptic Control for Human Activated Command Devices

Haptics refers to a widespread area of research that focuses on the interaction between humans and machine interfaces as applied to the sense of touch. A haptic interface is designed to increase the realism of tactile and kinesthetic sensations in applications such as virtual reality, teleoperation, and other scenarios where situational awareness is considered important, if not vital. This paper investigates the use of electric actuators and non-linear algorithms to provide force feedback to an input command device for providing haptics to the human operator. In particular, this work involves the study and implementation of a special case of feedback linearization known as inverse dynamics control and several outer loop impedance control topologies. It also investigates the issues concerned with force sensing and the application of model based controller functions in order to vary the desired inertia and the desired mass matrix. Results of the controllers’ abilities to display any desired impedance and provide the required kinesthetic constraint of virtual environments are shown on two experimental test rigs designed for this purpose.