Development of a multi-modal haptic feedback system for dexterous robotic telemanipulation

Robotic telemanipulation can be used to project human capabilities and accomplish tasks that may not otherwise be practical or safe for direct human involvement. Examples include work in inhospitable environments, the completion of dangerous tasks where the risk to human life is to be avoided such as explosive disablement, remote task completion when personnel transportation is not practical or desired, and completion of tasks that may be accomplished more successfully by human operated robots than by humans alone. These tasks would benefit from highly dexterous robotic telemanipulation capabilities with intuitive control and haptic feedback for the operator. A novel haptic feedback system that incorporates kinesthetic, vibratory, and tactile feedback has been proposed and is in development for use with a highly dexterous robotic platform to achieve human capabilities projection. This paper presents a novel wearable fingertip tactile feedback device that integrates with a commercially available haptic feedback system to provide multi-modal feedback for teleoperation of an highly dexterous anthropomorphic robotic manipulator.