Force feedback interfaces offer a valuable solution for training sensori-motor skills as well as for helping in their achievement in the real world. In surgery, for example, the simulation of various pathologies allows interns to train longer and safely. These techniques also allow registerting and analyzing the trainees performances to customize the training program. Force feedback interfaces can also be used during real surgeries in a co-manipulation mode to guide the surgeon’s motions and improve the patient’s safety. To be efficient and ergonomic, those interfaces should resist as less as possible the user’s movements, especially when he moves in free space. However, in all virtual reality training systems with force feedback as well as in all existing collaborative robots, the tools manipulated by the surgeon are permanently fixed on the robot. Consequently, he has to move the whole robot’s kinematic chain when he wants to manipulate his tools, even in free space, hence a limited dexterity and reactivity. CEA LIST recently studied an innovative solution, called intermittent contact, to deal with this problem. With an intermittent contact interface, the user is no more in contact with the robot. In free space, his movements are remotely measured and followed at a short distance. The robot comes in contact with the user only when a force is to be applied. This way, the interface is perfectly transparent in free space and the transitions into contact optimally rendered due to the stimulation of the tactile cutaneous receptors of the user along with the kinesthetic ones. In the state of the art, such interfaces are usually intended to be used with bare hand. Preliminary studies at CEA LIST proved this approach to be also of interest in case of tool-mediated interactions. The proposed subject intends to study and design an optimal interface of this kind. This work includes the selection of the most appropriate sensors for the 6DOF close range and high frequency tracking of the tool manipulated by the user, their integration on a re-designed robot end-effector, and the control of the robot in free space, in contact with the environment and during the transitions between free space and contact. Finally, this work includes a comparison of the performances obtained with an intermittent contact force feedback interface and a conventional interface.

This position is open until it is filled.

Department: Département Intelligence Ambiante et Systèmes Interactifs (LIST)
Laboratory: Laboratoire de Robotique Interactive
Start Date: 01-09-2015
ECA Code: SL-DRT-15-0756
Contact: florian.gosselin<στο>cea.fr