Experimental investigation of a collision avoidance controller for a bimanual multi-fingered haptic interface

To present three-directional forces at ten human fingertips, we previously developed a bimanual multi-fingered haptic interface consisting of two five-fingered haptic hands and two interface arms. However, there is a risk that the component parts of the haptic interface will collide while an operator is manipulating the interface. A collision could be hazardous for the operator, and thus collision avoidance is essential. To solve this problem, we propose a collision avoidance controller for the bimanual multi-fingered haptic interface. The proposed controller prevents collisions while reducing the collision-induced effects on the haptic display. We carried out several experiments, the results of which show the validity of the proposed collision avoidance controller for the bimanual multi-fingered haptic interface.