NRI: FND: COLLAB: Intuitive, Wearable Haptic Devices for Communication with Ubiquitous Robots

这一国家机器人倡议(NRI)项目将通过开发具有分布式触觉刺激的可穿戴软机器人设备来促进科学进步，并有益地影响人类健康和生活质量，使新的交流形式成为可能。在不久的将来，人与机器人的互动将是司空见惯的。在自动驾驶汽车和物理辅助设备等应用中，互动将需要有效和直观的双向交流。在许多情况下，通过视觉和声音传递信息可能会很慢，而且不合适。该项目专注于触觉(基于触摸的)机器人，以显著但私密的方式进行交流，以减轻对其他感觉渠道的需求。该项目服务于国家利益，促进人类感知、心理学和神经科学领域的知识，同时开发融合机器人、触觉和控制工程领域概念的新型融合技术。项目成果将通过用于教育的触觉设备和公开可用的软件和数据进行传播。该项目旨在通过外联计划、公共实验室参观以及对女性和少数族裔研究生、本科生和高中生的指导，扩大未被充分代表的群体对工程学的参与。可穿戴式触觉系统有可能通过未得到充分利用的感觉通道(体感)实现人类和智能系统之间的私人、显著交流。在这项研究中，信息将通过可穿戴的、无处不在的软机器人设备通过触觉通道传输，这些设备可以与人类用户进行被动和主动的触摸互动。这项研究由四个主要目标组成。首先，人类对前臂感知的特征将设定对能够传达一系列触觉提示的二维触觉刺激器的频率、幅度、方向、间隔和时间激励模式的要求。其次，该项目将开发一种可穿戴的、柔软的触觉设备，能够刺激一只前臂的皮肤，同时提供另一只手指尖可以探索的机械刺激。第三，该项目将为触觉设备开发渲染算法，考虑到人类被动刺激手臂和指尖主动探索的感知能力。第四，项目组将创建应用场景来评估和细化系统。可穿戴式触觉系统具有通过各种应用改善人类健康和福祉的潜力，这些应用包括：康复/运动治疗的物理提示；爆炸物拆除；家庭移动机器人等辅助设备的反馈；支持设计和电子商务的触觉通信；沉浸在虚拟世界中进行教育；以及促进人与人之间的远程互动。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This National Robotics Initiative (NRI) project will promote the progress of science and beneficially impact human health and quality of life by developing wearable soft robotic devices with distributed tactile stimulation that enable new forms of communication. Human-robot interactions will be commonplace in the near future. In applications such as self-driving cars and physically assistive devices, interaction will require effective and intuitive bidirectional communication. Transferring information through vision and sound can be slow and inappropriate in many circumstances. This project focuses on haptic (touch-based) robotics to enable communication in a salient but private manner that alleviates demands on other sensory channels. This project serves the national interest by advancing knowledge in the fields of human perception, psychology and neuroscience, while developing novel, convergent technology that integrates concepts across the fields of robotics, haptics, and control engineering. Project results will be disseminated through tactile haptic devices for education and publicly available software and data. The project aims to broaden participation of underrepresented groups in engineering through outreach programs, public lab tours, and the mentoring of female and minority graduate students, undergraduates, and high school students.Wearable haptic systems have the potential to enable private, salient communication between humans and intelligent systems through an underutilized sensory channel (somatosensation). In this research, information will be transmitted through the haptic channel via wearable, ubiquitous, soft robotic devices that provide both passive and active touch interactions with the human user. This research is comprised of four main objectives. First, a characterization of human perception of the forearm will set the requirements for the frequency, amplitude, directions, spacing, and temporal actuation patterns for a two-dimensional array of haptic stimulators that are able to convey a range of haptic cues. Second, the project will develop a wearable, soft, haptic device able to stimulate the skin of one forearm, while also providing mechanical stimuli that are intended to be explored by the fingertips of the other hand. Third, the project will develop rendering algorithms for the haptic device that take into consideration human perceptual abilities for passive stimulation of the arm and active exploration by the fingertips. Fourth, the project team will create application scenarios to evaluate and refine the system. Wearable haptic systems have potential to improve human health and well-being through a variety of applications including: physical cueing for rehabilitation/movement therapy; explosive ordnance defusing; feedback from assistive devices including mobile robots in the home; tactile communication to enable design and e-commerce; immersion in virtual worlds for education; and the facilitation of remote interaction between people.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.