On Distributed Multirate Control of Direct User-to-User Touch in Networked Haptic Systems with Passive Wave-Domain Communications

This paper investigates the stability and performance of distributed multirate control of direct touch in networked haptic systems that provide users with a remote dynamic proxy of their peer and with passive wave domain communications. The paper considers communication networks with fixed delay and with packet update rate smaller than the update rate of the users’ local force feedback loops. After developing a multirate state space model of the direct touch haptic system, the paper uses eigenvalue‐based stability analysis to determine the maximum contact stiffness that can be applied to users, as well as the maximum coordination gain that can be used to synchronize the user sites. The analysis predicts that both remote dynamic proxies and passive wave‐domain communications make the contact stiffness robust to delay, but only passive wave‐domain communications mitigate the negative impact of delay on the coordination gain. In other words, the analysis suggests that passive wave‐domain communications should be employed to make the distributed multirate control of direct touch in networked haptic systems stable regardless of the fixed communication delay. However, if power‐domain communications are employed, remote dynamic proxies should be used to allow rendering of stiffer contact between users. Experiments in which two users probe each other using similar haptic interfaces validate the analytical results.