Wearable Haptics for Advanced Human Robot Interaction

During my PhD I worked on the study of human perception with the goal of developing intuitive and efficient wearable haptic feedback devices. For the device development, my research has been inspired by two main pillars, the wearability and the modality matching paradigm. The first is necessary to allow a full integration of these devices in everyday life. Furthermore, the modality matching approach, which states that a cue delivered for sensory substitution should be mediated by a stimulus sharing the same sensory modality as the one that would be felt naturally, has helped in the development of intuitive interfaces. In this thesis, I will present three wearable haptic devices I developed, focusing on three main different tactile stimuli: grasping force, softness, high-frequency forces. I present the Wearable Fabric Yielding Display (W-FYD), a wearable fabric-based display that enables softness exploration. I show two applications of this device: tactile augmented reality for open-surgery training, and real-time tactile feedback in terms of stiffness for gynecologic robotic surgery. The second device I discuss is the Clenching Upper-limb Force Feedback device (CUFF), a wearable fabric-based device designed to provide force stimuli in different directions on the user’s arm. I have applied it in different fields, such as prosthetics, tele-robotics, and rehabilitation. The third device that I will present is the Vibro-Tactile high frequency contact force feedback. The minimalistic design of this system, its foundations rooted on the modality matching paradigm and its modular structure allow for an easy integration in a wide variety of systems.