High performance explicit force control for finger interaction haptic interface

The requirements for a high performance haptic interface (HI) can arise from demanding VR applications such as the marketing on line of novel textiles or garments. Aiming at the improvement of the performance of the device, the integration of an explicit force control (i.e. a control making use of force measurement) on a HI, originally conceived for open loop control, may prove to be very challenging from the system stability point of view. This paper proposes a methodology for the dimensioning of a motion based explicit force control on the basis of the dynamic parameters of the plant (HI + human). The methodology highlights how the design solutions generally adopted for His intended for open loop force control can hinder the stability of the system when integrated with a closed loop force control