A Wearable Fingertip Cutaneous Haptic Device with Continuous Omnidirectional Motion Feedback

In both teleoperation in real space and exploration in virtual space, ‘passive’ and ‘active’ haptic feedback can help to improve the performance of the task, especially in object handover and exploring. However, the current wearable haptic devices are hard to display continuous omnidirectional motion feedback simultaneously, which makes it not yet achieved. In this study, we thus propose a cutaneous haptic device, which enables continuous omnidirectional motion feedback for exhibiting ‘active’ and ‘passive’ haptic feedback. By applying small smart actuators (i.e., piezo actuators), the device can obtain contact force and be wearable. By arranging the closed loop with a plain-woven structure, our device makes continuous omnidirectional motion feedback possible. Our 35 g device can generate 0.94 N contact force and 0.5 N shear force. The passive and active haptic evaluations also proved its haptic capability. In conclusion, our proposed device with ‘active’ and ‘passive’ haptic feedback can provide continuous omnidirectional motion making it possible to be used for precise teleoperation.