Swarm Robotic Encountered-Type Haptic Interaction in Immersive Environments

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My team's research will establish novel ways of providing "encountered-type" haptics for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) with swarm robots. "Encountered-type haptic" interfaces are an emerging approach to providing haptic sensations for VR/AR by reconfiguring physical environments. In contrast to current handheld or wearable haptic devices, encountered-type haptics can physically render virtual surfaces and objects around the user, which enables realistic physical sensations and feedback for large-scale interactions in VR/AR. Previously, other technologies have been developed for encountered-type haptics: from grounded robotic arms to shape-changing displays. However, these technologies often introduce challenges in their deployability, scalability, and generalizability. My proposed research will establish a new class of encountered-type haptic interaction enabled by swarm robots. In this novel approach, a swarm of robots can dynamically construct and reconfigure physical objects and spaces to simulate virtual objects, with which the user can physically interact in VR/AR. This approach will enable users to touch and interact in the virtual space using their whole bodies-allowing the users to walk, sit on, grasp, manipulate, or lean against objects in VR/AR environments, as if interacting with them in the physical world. This new approach promises scalable, deployable, and general--purpose encountered-type haptics for immersive environments. We will achieve the research program's goal through three research themes: 1) Tabletop-scale encountered--type haptics with shape--changing swarm robots. 2) Room--scale encountered--type haptics with swarm robotic actuation. 3) Handheld-scale encountered-type haptics with graspable and transformable objects made by swarm robotic assembly. Each of these themes aims to support different haptic interactions and modalities which will cover a wide range of interactions and applications in VR/AR. The outcomes of this research program will have a substantial impact on industry and society in the future in many application domains that include: surgery training, flight simulation, industrial design, entertainment, telepresence, and remote collaboration in immersive environments.