Contrast vision-based grasp force feedback in telemanipulation

The operator usually uses his hands to perform manipulation tasks. She has to feel the reaction forces in high-precision manipulation. The mechanism applied in the human interface device for force and tactile feedback is the most challenging (and usually the most expensive) part of a telepresence device. Bilateral control is a common solution in these systems. However, the coupled force and position control loops have contradicting requirements. Usually, the human operator has to learn a lot until she can ”feel the task” in her hand, even in direct manipulation. However, using the plasticity of the human brain sensory substitution can be used to achieve a cheaper and partially decoupled system. The main contribution of this paper is a model of human contrast vision, which is applied to feedback of the grasping force in a telemanipulation system in order to decouple the bilateral control and to achieve a less complex haptic device. A contrast model of a the human vision is introduced and it is applied for grasping force feedback via peripheral vision. The preliminary results are presented.