This video introduces and demonstrates a new system that expands the usable workspace of a haptic device in an immersive environment by attaching it to a mobile robot with a Mecanum-style drive.
Research was performed by Ryan A. Pavlik, Dr. Judy M. Vance and Dr. Greg R. Luecke at Iowa State University’s Virtual Reality Applications Center.
As the user manipulates the end effector of the haptic device, the mobile robot moves the haptic device base to follow the user through the space. This in effect expands the usable workspace of the haptic device from the reachable volume of the device to the entire position tracked area in an immersive environment. When contact is made with virtual objects, the device applies a highly accurate and realistic penalty-based haptic force that is grounded through the mobile robot base.
Ryan Pavlik is pictured operating the haptic device. More information on this project is available at https://ift.tt/2npw0Tt project “Haptics for Large Space Virtual Environments to Assess Assembly Tasks”)
The three-wall CAVE immersive environment shown here is known as “METaL”:
https://ift.tt/2mt9Z67The haptic device is a Haption Virtuose 6D35-45, on a custom built mount. The mobile robot is based on the “4WD Mecanum Wheel Robot Kit”, Nexus Robot model 10011, with a custom software stack on its embedded microcontroller.
SPARTA, the “Scriptable Platform for Advanced Research and Teaching in Assembly”, is the software that powers the virtual environment and the haptic interaction with CAD models.
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant #CMMI-1061458. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
via YouTube
