The Rutgers Master II-new design force-feedback glove

TLDR

The Rutgers Master II‑ND glove is a haptic interface for dexterous interaction with virtual environments. It delivers up to 16 N of force feedback to each fingertip using direct‑drive pneumatic actuators, incorporates Hall‑effect and infrared sensors for position measurement, and is controlled by an embedded PC and pneumatic servovalves that provide high‑bandwidth operation with RS‑232 communication. Comparative performance data versus the CyberGrasp commercial glove are provided.

Abstract

The Rutgers Master II-ND glove is a haptic interface designed for dextrous interactions with virtual environments. The glove provides force feedback up to 16 N each to the thumb, index, middle, and ring fingertips. It uses custom pneumatic actuators arranged in a direct-drive configuration in the palm. Unlike commercial haptic gloves, the direct-drive actuators make unnecessary cables and pulleys, resulting in a more compact and lighter structure. The force-feedback structure also serves as position measuring exoskeleton, by integrating noncontact Hall-effect and infrared sensors. The glove is connected to a haptic-control interface that reads its sensors and servos its actuators. The interface has pneumatic servovalves, signal conditioning electronics, A/D/A boards, power supply and an imbedded Pentium PC. This distributed computing assures much faster control bandwidth than would otherwise be possible. Communication with the host PC is done over an RS232 line. Comparative data with the CyberGrasp commercial haptic glove is presented.