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Teleoperated minimally invasive surgical robots can significantly enhance a surgeon's accuracy, dexterity and visualization. However, current commercially available systems do not include significant haptic (force and tactile) feedback to the operator. This paper describes experiments to characterize this problem, as well as several methods to provide haptic feedback in order to improve surgeon's performance. There exist a variety of sensing and control methods that enable haptic feedback, although a number of practical considerations, e.g. cost, complexity and biocompatibility, present significant challenges. The ability of teleoperated robot‐assisted surgical systems to measure and display haptic information leads to a number of additional exciting clinical and scientific opportunities, such as active operator assistance through “virtual fixtures” and the automatic acquisition of tissue properties.

Teleoperations in hazardous environments are often hampered by the lack of available information regarding the state of the remote robotic device. Typically, ideal camera placements are not possible, and an operator is left with the problem of performing complex manoeuvres in the presence of severe blind‐spots. To address this dilemma, we have been investigating the use of a haptic interface, which not only allows an operator to communicate motion commands to a robot, but also allows the robot to communicate to the operator its motion when performing autonomous collision avoidance. This haptic interface provides total operator control, plus vital information that can be used to decide if and how a robot's autonomous operation should be overridden. This paper details our work in this area and presents the results we have obtained from operator/task performance experimentation with this new haptic communication approach.

Haptics can significantly enhance the user's sense of immersion and interactivity. Especially in an assembly task, haptic feedback can help designers to have a better understanding of virtual objects and to increase task efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the design and implementation of a haptic‐based virtual assembly system (HVAS).

A multi‐thread system structure was designed, an automatic data integration interface was developed to transfer geometry, topology, assembly and physics information from a computer‐aided design system to virtual reality application, and a hierarchical constraint‐based data model and scene graph structure was designed to construct the virtual assembly environment. Unlike traditional virtual assembly systems based on collision detection or geometry constraint only, a physics‐based modeling approach combining with haptic feedback and geometry constraint was undertaken to realize and guide the realistic assembly process. When two parts collide into each other, the force and torque can be computed and provide feedback, and a spring‐mass model is used to prevent penetration and simulate dynamic behaviour. When two parts are close enough to each other and the assembly simulation state is activated, a geometry constraint can be captured, an attractive force can be generated to guide the user to assemble the part along the correct position, and the repulsive force can also be generated to realize the mating process as natural and realistic as in real life.

The implementation details and application examples demonstrate that haptic‐based virtual assembly is a valuable tool for assembly design and process planning.

The paper presents an HVAS.

Offering unskilled people training in engineering and vocational skills helps to decrease unemployment rate. The purpose of this paper is to augment actual hands-on conventional vocational training methods with virtual haptic simulations as part of computer-based vocational education and training.

This paper discusses the design of a bi-manual virtual multi-modal training interface for learning basic skills in surface mount device hand soldering. This research aims to analyze human hand dexterity of novices and experts at micro level skill knowledge capture by simulating and tracking the users’ actions in the manual soldering process through a multi-modal user interface.

Haptic feedback can enhance the experience of a virtual training environment for the end user and can provide a supplementary modality for imparting tangible principles to increase effectiveness. This will improve the teaching and learning of engineering and vocational skills with touch-based haptics technology, targeted toward teachers and students of various disciplines in engineering. Compared with the traditional training methods for learning soldering skills, the proposed method shows more efficiency in faster skill acquisition and skill learning.

In this study, the authors proposed a novel bi-manual virtual training simulator model for teaching soldering skills for surface mount technology and inspection. This research aims to investigate the acquisition of soldering skills through virtual environment, with and without haptic feedback. This acts as a basic-level training simulator that provides introductory training in soldering skills and can help initially unskilled people find educational opportunities and job offers in the electronics industry.

This paper aims to present a novel modular design framework for the haptic teleoperation of single-master/multiple-slave (SM/MS) systems with cooperating manipulators.

The user commands the remote-leader robot and the slave remote robot follows the leader in a leader–follower formation. The remote-slave is purely force-controlled. A virtual model of the remote environment is introduced between the local and remote environments through simulation software. Locally generated motion inputs are transmitted to the remote environment through the virtual model. A haptic coupling is designed in the virtual environment and the haptic feedback is transmitted to the user along with the forces measured in the remote environment. The controllers proposed in this work are experimentally evaluated with experienced and inexperienced users.

The proposed haptic interaction model contributes to the total force feedback and smoothens the high-frequency signals occurring at the physical interaction in the remote environment. Experimental results show that the implemented controllers including the proposed haptic interaction improve the teleoperation performances in terms of trajectory tracking. Furthermore, pure force control of the remote-slave is shown to enhance the robustness of the teleoperation against external disturbances. Satisfactory teleoperation performances are observed with both experienced and inexperienced users.

The proposed SM/MS teleoperation system involves a multi-purpose virtual simulator and a purely force-controlled remote-slave manipulator in a modular cooperative configuration. The uniquely defined structure of the proposed haptic coupling is used in modeling the interaction between the local and remote manipulators on the one hand, and between cooperating remote manipulators on the other.

Haptic interfaces enable person‐machine communication through touch, and most commonly, in response to user movements. We comment on a distinct property of haptic interfaces, that of providing for simultaneous information exchange between a user and a machine. We also comment on the fact that, like other kinds of displays, they can take advantage of both the strengths and the limitations of human perception. The paper then proceeds with a description of the components and the modus operandi of haptic interfaces, followed by a list of current and prospective applications and a discussion of a cross‐section of current device designs.

Hot‐cells are shielded structures protecting individuals from radioactive materials. The purpose of this paper is to propose a design approach for a hot‐cell simulator using digital mock‐up (DMU) technology and combining Haptic guided complex robotic manipulation for assembly tasks in a virtual environment.

The principal reason for developing a simulator was to explore the feasibility of hot‐cell structure design and collision‐free assembly process. For this, a simulation design philosophy has been proposed that includes DMU facility offering the ability of analyzing the operations and performing complex robotic manipulations in the virtual hot‐cell environment. Furthermore, enhanced Haptic mapping for tele‐manipulation is proposed for training and guidance purposes.

From the analysis and task scenarios performed in virtual simulator, the optimal positions of the manipulators and need of (bridge transport dual arm servo‐manipulators) type were identified. Operation tasks were performed remotely using virtual hot‐cell technology by simulating the scenarios in the DMU reducing the overall operation cost and user training. The graphic simulator substantially reduced the cost of the process and maintenance procedure as well as the process equipment by providing a pre‐analysis of whole scenario for real manipulation.

This research tries to contribute to the virtual hot‐cell design philosophy. Tele‐operated complex robotic operations in DMU technology are performed in virtual hot‐cell. The simulator provides improved Haptic guidance with force and torque feedback enhancing the realism of virtual environment.

In this study, a new methodology to evaluate the performance of physics simulation engines (PSEs) when used in haptic virtual assembly applications is proposed. This methodology can be used to assess the performance of any physics engine. To prove the feasibility of the proposed methodology, two-third party PSEs – Bullet and PhysXtm – were evaluated. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Eight assembly tests comprising variable geometric and dynamic complexity were conducted. The strengths and weaknesses of each simulation engine for haptic virtual assembly were identified by measuring different parameters such as task completion time, influence of weight perception and force feedback.

The proposed tests have led to the development of a standard methodology by which physics engines can be compared and evaluated. The results have shown that when the assembly comprises complex shapes, Bullet has better performance than PhysX. It was also observed that the assembly time is directly affected by the weight of virtual objects.

A more comprehensive study must be carried out in order to evaluate and compare the performance of more PSEs. The influence of collision shape representation algorithms on the performance of haptic assembly must be considered in future analysis.

The performance of PSEs in haptic-enabled VR applications had been remained as an unknown issue. The main parameters of physics engines that affect the haptic virtual assembly process have been identified. All the tests performed in this study were carried out with the haptic rendering loop active and the objects manipulated through the haptic device.

Haptics is an emerging technology that allows touch‐enabled interaction with virtual objects. Analogous to the use of computer graphics for rendering of a three‐dimensional (3D) scene to give the user a visual description of the scene, it is possible to use computer haptics to let the user touch objects in the 3D scene. This is normally accomplished by having the haptics engine sending either force vectors or positional information to a haptics device, a robotic arm, that the user manipulates. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of this technology, describe haptic devices and haptic application programming interfaces. We will also illustrate the use of haptics technology by describing a few industrial and medical applications.

Virtual reality (VR) for product assembly has been studied for more than 20 years but its practical application in industry is still very much in its infancy. Haptics is a new and important interaction method for VR and a strong and growing research area, however, it still remains a virtually unknown concept for industrial application.

This paper provides a comprehensive survey of VR and haptics for product assembly, from rigid parts to soft cables.

Some new ideas and research progresses in recent years are especially investigated. First the concepts and classifications of virtual assembly are introduced and the different virtual environment systems for product assembly are discussed. Then the major research groups, typical systems and major research issues are explored in detail, treating rigid parts and soft cables separately. Lastly, the barriers preventing successful application of virtual assembly are discussed and future research directions are also summarized.

The paper provides an overview and analysis of VR and haptics for product assembly, including both rigid parts and soft cables.