Passive Haptic Feedback for Manual Assembly Simulation

In this study movable props representing an object were used to try to achieve realistic movements of a worker during completion of a manipulation task in an assembly-like scenario recreated in a mixed reality environment. The form and the weight of the movable props were adjusted to different resemblance levels. The effect of these levels on the experiential fidelity of the worker and on the action fidelity of process observers was studied. Results showed that increasing the fidelity of the movable props does not necessarily result on better performance, e.g. simulating the weight of the actual object only seems to improve the experience if the prop also resembles the form of the actual object. Further study is suggested to better understand the effect of other factors.