Investigation of Multi-Point Cutaneous Activity on Skin and Proposal of Sensory enhancement technologies for Tool Manipulation

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26630083
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Intelligent mechanics/Mechanical systems
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Konyo Masashi 東北大学, 情報科学研究科, 准教授 (20400301)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 人間機械システム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Humans can perceive external forces applied on a grasping tool based on skin pressure distribution at multiple contact areas during grasp. We have developed the TAKO-Pen, a pen-type pseudo-haptic interface using suction pressure stimulation on each skin. We confirmed that an appropriate quadrant values could represent the magnitudes of forces in multiple directions. Experimental results also showed that the proposed method could represent arbitrary directions between a pair of the orthogonal axes. This study also experimentally investigates the perceptual mechanism of the force applied to a grasping tool based on the hypothesis that perceptual force is mediated by the combination of cutaneous and kinesthetic sensation. The results support the hypothesis that the combination of cutaneous and kinesthetic sensation is used for the perception of force.

Free Research Field

ロボティクス・メカトロニクス