Contact behavior of a rigid body and haptic representation at its holding point

Abstract

This paper describes a method to calculate contact behavior and a haptic feedback of a rigid body which is manipulated by the user. The contact of a manipulated object to a surface with a complicated geometrical variation or texture is calculated based only on statics and an approximated coefficient of friction without using an exact geometric model of the surface. The variation on the surface is substituted by the coefficient of friction which is obtained approximately by applying a linear derivative filter to a surface height map measured by a laser displacement meter. The haptic impressions on resultant feedback forces were evaluated as compared to the direct touch with a fingertip to the real texture surfaces and to the indirect touch with a stick. The result showed that the method was better applicable to the surfaces with a relatively high spatial frequency and a small height difference.