Problem
Research questions and friction points this paper is trying to address.
directional force feedback
haptic glove
contact-rich manipulation
teleoperation
fingertip forces
The N2D Haptic Glove: A Multi-Finger Glove for 2D Directional Force Feedback for Contact Rich Manipulation
🤖 AI Summary
This work addresses the limited directional force feedback in existing wearable haptic gloves, which often lack fingertip planar force cues and consequently impair contact perception during teleoperation, leading to excessive pressing and unstable manipulation. To overcome this, the authors present N2D, a multi-finger wearable haptic glove that, for the first time, delivers two-dimensional (flexion-extension plane) directional force feedback to multiple fingers, surpassing the directional ambiguity inherent in conventional single-axis or vibrotactile devices. The system integrates a spool-based transmission mechanism, a multi-finger design, and a high-transparency force feedback control algorithm, with closed-loop validation demonstrated in a robotic teleoperation setup. User studies show that N2D significantly reduces contact force errors, improves task repeatability, and enhances user experience in axial probing tasks compared to visual-only and single-axis haptic baselines.
📝 Abstract
Humans rely on directional fingertip forces to probe and regulate contact during manipulation, yet most wearable haptic gloves render only vibration or single-axis force, leaving force direction ambiguous. Without directional cues, users must infer contact force from vision alone, often leading to over-pressing, inconsistent control, and reduced precision in robotic teleoperation. We present the N2D Haptic Glove, a multi-finger wearable device that renders planar flexion-extension fingertip forces using capstan-drive transmissions for high-transparency force feedback. Through benchtop validations and a user study involving haptic teleoperation of a robotic arm and hand, we demonstrate that compared to visual-only and single-axis haptic baselines, planar fingertip feedback significantly reduces contact force error during precise manipulation, improves trial-to-trial consistency, and enhances overall user experience in axial probing tasks. These findings establish the N2D Haptic Glove and directional finger-based haptics devices as a promising modality for contact-rich teleoperation, immersive virtual reality simulations, and robot learning from demonstrations. N2D Haptic Glove's hardware and software system will be fully open-sourced at \href{https://ucsdarclab.github.io/n2d-glove/}{this https URL}.
Innovation
Methods, ideas, or system contributions that make the work stand out.
directional haptics
multi-finger haptic glove
2D force feedback
capstan-drive transmission
teleoperation
🔎 Similar Papers
No similar papers found.
💼 Related Jobs
