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

这个国家机器人计划（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的进步，并对人类健康和生活质量产生有益的影响，从而实现新的交流形式。在不久的将来，人机交互将变得司空见惯。在自动驾驶汽车和物理辅助设备等应用中，交互将需要有效和直观的双向通信。在许多情况下，通过视觉和声音传递信息是缓慢和不合适的。该项目专注于触觉（基于触摸的）机器人技术，以一种显著但私密的方式实现通信，从而减轻对其他感官通道的需求。该项目通过推进人类感知、心理学和神经科学领域的知识，同时开发集成机器人、触觉和控制工程领域概念的新颖、融合技术，为国家利益服务。项目成果将通过触觉教育设备和公开的软件和数据传播。该项目旨在通过外展计划、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在工程领域的参与。可穿戴触觉系统有潜力通过未充分利用的感官通道（体感）实现人类和智能系统之间的私密、显著的通信。在这项研究中，信息将通过触觉通道通过可穿戴的、无处不在的软机器人设备传输，这些设备可以与人类用户进行被动和主动的触摸交互。这项研究包括四个主要目标。首先，人类对前臂感知的表征将为能够传递一系列触觉线索的二维触觉刺激器阵列设定频率、幅度、方向、间距和时间驱动模式的要求。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，同时也提供机械刺激，旨在通过另一只手的指尖进行探索。第三，该项目将为触觉设备开发渲染算法，该算法将考虑人类对手臂的被动刺激和指尖的主动探索的感知能力。第四，项目团队将创建应用场景来评估和完善系统。可穿戴触觉系统有潜力通过各种应用来改善人类健康和福祉，包括：用于康复/运动治疗的物理提示；爆炸性弹药的拆除；来自辅助设备的反馈，包括家中的移动机器人；触觉沟通，实现设计和电子商务；沉浸于虚拟世界的教育；以及人与人之间远程互动的便利。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.