Magnetic Levitation Haptic Interfaces

这个项目推进了关于如何让计算机用户与计算机进行令人信服的真实触觉(触觉)交互的知识。虽然在这一领域已经取得了一些进展，主要是通过使用背靠背驱动的类似机器人的机械手，但这是一种实质上的新方法，它承诺在这种能力的改进方面实现质的飞跃：用户通过掌握其行为描述被计算的高级工具与计算机交互，使用该工具来与在应用方面具有语义意义的计算环境进行交互。同时，环境对工具手柄施加真实力和扭矩，用户可以感觉到。这一愿景是为计算机用户提供即时、高保真、令人信服的与计算环境的真实交互。新的触觉界面方法是基于最近开发的磁悬浮技术和基于物理的模拟技术最近的强劲进步。磁悬浮技术利用洛伦兹力稳定地悬浮和控制六个自由度的刚体(包括用户通过其进行交互的手柄)，为触觉交互提供了一个新的、迄今未被探索的物理基础。新的模拟方法基于特殊目的的技术，这些技术承诺比一般的模拟方法更简单、更快、更健壮。健壮逼真的物理模拟，加上高带宽的六自由度作用力反射，有可能极大地提高虚拟环境系统的感觉、性能和能力，用于广泛的人类活动。

This project advances knowledge about how to give computer users convincingly real haptic (sense of touch) interaction with computers. While there has been some progress in this area, chiefly through the use of back-driven robotic-like manipulators, this is a substantially new approach which promises a qualitative leap in improvement of such capabilities: A user interacts with the computer by grasping arigid tool whose behavioral description is computed, employing this tool to interact with computed environments which are semantically meaningful in terms of the application. At the same time, the environment exerts realistic forces and torques on the tool's handle which are felt by the user. The vision is one of providing the computer user immediate, high-fidelity, convincingly real interaction with computed environments. The new haptic interface approach is based on a recently developed magnetic levitation technology, and on recent strong advances in the art of physically-based simulation. The magnetic levitation technology uses Lorentz forces to stably levitate and control a rigid body (which includes the handle through which the user interacts) in six degrees of freedom, giving a new and heretofore unexplored physical basis for haptic interaction. The new simulation methods are based on special-purpose techniques that promise to be simpler, faster, and more robust than their generic counterparts. Robust realistic physical simulation, coupled with high- bandwidth six-degree-of-freedom force reflection, has the potential to greatly improve the state of the art in the feel, performance, and capabilities of virtual environment systems for use in a wide range of human activities.