Intuitive Directional Sense Presentation to the Torso Using McKibben-Based Surface Haptic Sensation in Immersive Space

2026-08-10

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of delivering intuitive navigational cues in immersive environments, where visual overload often impedes users’ ability to perceive critical guidance. Existing haptic approaches typically lack intuitiveness and require extensive user training. To overcome these limitations, this work proposes a wearable fabric-based actuator leveraging McKibben artificial muscles, which dynamically modulates pneumatic pressure to generate spatially distributed tactile stimuli across large areas of the torso. This enables vision-free, learnable-free directional guidance through intuitive somatosensory feedback. The research presents the first application of McKibben fabric actuators for conveying directional awareness during full-body movement, integrated within a mixed-reality system. User studies and statistical analyses confirm the approach’s efficacy in directional perception, with successful deployment demonstrated in teleoperated micro-manipulation tasks.

Abstract

In recent years, systems that utilize immersive space have been developed in various fields. Immersive spaces often contain considerable amounts of visual information; therefore, users often fail to obtain their desired information. Therefore, various methods have been developed to guide users toward haptic sensations. However, many of these methods have limitations in terms of the intuitive perception of haptic sensation and require practice for familiarization with haptic sensation. Fabric actuators are wearable haptic devices that combine fabric and McKibben artificial muscles to provide wearers with surface haptic sensation. These sensations can be provided to a wide area of the body with intuitive perception, instead of only to a part of the body. This paper presents a novel air pressure adjustment method for whole-body motion guidance using surface haptic sensations provided by a wearable fabric actuator. The proposed system can provide users with a directional sense without visual information in an immersive space. The effectiveness of the proposed system was evaluated through subject experiments and statistical data analysis. Finally, a directional sense presentation was conducted for users performing micromanipulations in a mixed-reality space to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed system for teleoperation.

Problem

• immersive space
• haptic sensation
• directional sense
• visual overload
• intuitive perception

Innovation

• surface haptic sensation
• McKibben artificial muscle
• directional sense
• immersive space
• wearable fabric actuator