Haptic Perception Characteristics of Physical Therapists during End-feel Presenting

Abstract

In this paper, we report analysis of haptic perception of physical therapists when they using end-feel training robot to clarify an effectiveness of haptic interaction between human and a training robot. We observe that the bone-to-bone end-feel is not difficult to discriminate for all subject in this haptic perception test. However, when we present the soft tissue end-feel and the connective tissue end-feel to the subject, some of the subject cannot score precisely. Subjects are divided into two groups by K-means++. We find the difference between two groups in the years of service, the disease type, and the level of care. This result indicates that long term treatment experience develops not only PT’s medical skill but also keen haptic perception.