Simulating cheap hardware: a platform for evaluating cost-performance trade-offs in haptic hardware design

• Published in: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004 Vol. 1; pp. 770 - 775 Vol.1
• Main Authors: Brouwer, I., MacLean, K.E., Hodgson, A.J.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway NJ IEEE 2004
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Control theory. Systems; Costs; Degradation; Exact sciences and technology; Forging; Friction; Haptic interfaces; Hardware; Laparoscopes; Robotics; Software; Surgery; Testing; Virtual environment; Tactile sensitivity; Friction; User interface; Surgery; Virtual reality; Laparoscopic surgery; Magnetic hysteresis; Inertia; Mechanical clearance; Modeling
• ISBN: 9780780382329; 0780382323
• ISSN: 1050-4729; 2577-087X
• DOI: 10.1109/ROBOT.2004.1307242

This work describes a platform devised to explore the impact on task execution in a virtual environment of the quality, and therefore cost, of the system's haptic hardware. This platform is a complex haptic interface in which hardware quality can be varied in simulation. Software intercepts the position and force signals between the haptic hardware and the virtual environment software, and alters them to supply the effect of increased friction, cogging, backlash, inertia and/or lower force output. All parameters of the introduced effects can be set independently or in combination and on a continuous scale; a primary contribution is the creation of haptically realistic effect models that are stable in combination on complex hardware. This work is part of a larger project in which we test the effect of the simulated degradations on surgeons performance in simulated laparoscopic tasks.