Model-Mediated Telehaptic Perception

Overview

Telehaptics is the science of transmitting touch-related sensations over computer networks. With respect to robotic telemanipulation, telehaptics emphasizes more on reliably reproducing physical properties of a remote environment, as mediated over a network through the use of appropriate haptic interfacing technologies.

Several factors play an important role in the quality of telehaptic perception and the associated telemanipulation control performance. One of the main such factors that can cause degradation of the quality of a telehaptic system is the presence of time delays in the bilateral communication and control channel.

Inspired by concepts such as impedance-reflection and model-mediated telemanipulation, our work in this context focuses on designing estimation and adaptive control strategies that can mitigate some of the problems caused by network delays in a telehaptic system, with the ultimate goal being to enhance transparency and stability of such teleoperation systems, involving closed-loop physical human-robot remote interaction and cooperation. Experimental studies employ psychophysical evaluation protocols in prototype telerobotic testbeds to assess metrics related to perceptual thresholds and control performance.

Figure showing an experimental setup for evaluating telehaptic perception of delayed stiffness.

People

Costas Tzafestas
Spyros Velanas (PhD candidate)
Paraskevas Oikonomou (PhD candidate)

Publications

Tzafestas, Costas S; Velanas, Spyros, “Telehaptic perception of delayed stiffness using adaptive impedance control: Experimental psychophysical analysis,” Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 22 (4), pp. 323–344, 2013, ISSN: 15313263.

Velanas, Spyros V; Tzafestas, Costas S, “Model-mediated telehaptic perception of delayed curvature,” Proceedings – IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, 2012, ISBN: 9781467346054.