The study of the sense of touch that contributes to skillful human handling: Starting with the reproduction of the spatio-temporal distribution of skin deformation

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K13722
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 20020:Robotics and intelligent system-related
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: Nagano Hikaru 神戸大学, 工学研究科, 助教 (70758127)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: 触覚ディスプレイ / 皮膚感覚ディスプレイ / 力覚ディスプレイ / 皮膚変形

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we developed a high-resolution haptic display and clarify the contribution of cutaneous and kinesthetic sensation to the skillfulness of human hands. We developed a method for presenting skin deformation using suction pressure distribution stimuli, and constructed a tactile display that can generate a large number of suction pressure distributions on the fingertip skin. The system was also integrated with a simulator that calculates the stimulus distribution in real time, and it was shown that the constructed system can present hardness and softness. In addition, the integration of the suction pressure distribution display and force display was performed to investigate their contribution to the perception of hardness and softness.

Free Research Field

ハプティクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

高い臨場感を有する触覚再現は，手術・触診シミュレータの開発や，高度な遠隔操縦支援システムの構築などに必要な要素である．特に本研究において再現対象として着目した物体の硬軟感は触覚においても主要な要素であり，複数の感覚（深部感覚と皮膚感覚）の統合によって知覚される複雑な感覚である．本研究の成果は，深部感覚と皮膚感覚を独立して高精度に再現可能なシステムであり，高い臨場感のある硬軟感再現を実現するというエンジニアリング的貢献を有するとともに，硬軟感がどのように統合されて知覚されるのかという人の知覚メカニズム解明に利用するというサイエンス的貢献を有する成果である．