Passivity-based high-fidelity haptic rendering of contact

A method is described whereby the virtual haptic interaction with deformable elastic objects is created in terms of two processes: a slow process which carries on the simulation, and a fast process to render forces. Passivity theory is used to design an update strategy which reproduces exactly pre-computed responses between a tool and an object. This yields a design procedure for adjustable local models which guarantee the passivity of the interaction while preserving fidelity. Two examples of local models are given and some experimental results are reported.