TIKL: Development of a Wearable Vibrotactile Feedback Suit for Improved Human Motor Learning

When humans learn a new motor skill from a teacher, they learn using multiple channels. They receive high level information aurally about the skill, visual information about how another performs the skill, and at times, tactile information from the teacher´s physical guidance. This research proposes a novel approach where the student receives real-time tactile feedback, simultaneously over all joints, delivered through a wearable robotic system. This tactile feedback can supplement the visual or auditory feedback from the teacher. Our results using a 5-DOF robotic suit show a 27% improvement in accuracy while performing the target motion, and an accelerated learning rate of up to 23%. We report both of these results with high statistical significance (p les 0.01). This research is intended for use in a diverse set of applications including sports training, motor rehabilitation after neurological damage, dance, postural retraining for health, and many others. We call this system tactile interaction for kinesthetic learning (TIKL).