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Physical interaction between humans and robots can help robots learn to perform complex tasks. The robot arm gains information by observing how the human kinesthetically guides it throughout the task. While prior works focus on how the robot learns, it is equally important that this learning is transparent to the human teacher. Visual displays that show the robot’s uncertainty can potentially communicate this information; however, we hypothesize that visual feedback mechanisms miss out on the physical connection between the human and robot. In this work we present a soft haptic display that wraps around and conforms to the surface of a robot arm, adding a haptic signal at an existing point of contact without significantly affecting the interaction. We demonstrate how soft actuation creates a salient haptic signal while still allowing flexibility in device mounting. Using a psychophysics experiment, we show that users can accurately distinguish inflation levels of the wrapped display with an average Weber fraction of 11.4%. When we place the wrapped display around the arm of a robotic manipulator, users are able to interpret and leverage the haptic signal in sample robot learning tasks, improving identification of areas where the robot needs more training and enabling the user to provide better demonstrations. See videos of our device and user studies here: https://youtu.be/tX-2Tqeb9Nw
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Automatic Control of a Soft Trunk Robot Actuated by Strings
A soft robot is a robot made of soft materials and is capable of doing complex tasks. The soft robot that was created in this experiment is a soft trunk robot actuated by strings. The purpose of this robot is to be able to move around small spaces easily and be able to perform complex tasks. For example, positioning a tip mounted sensor to gather data. From the results in the experiment, the robot can move to a target position when given a set of coordinates by using a P-controller.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1929729
- PAR ID:
- 10345167
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- IEEE MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
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- The DOI is not currently available.
