Stability Analysis and User Perception of Haptic Rendering Combining Virtual Elastic, Viscous and Inertial Effects

Abstract

Virtual Reality environments are being used on a mass scale in fields, such as Industry and Medicine. These virtual scenarios serve very different purposes such as prototyping, gaming and exercising. Interaction with the virtual environment is mainly achieved by senses of sight and hearing through devices, such as a mouse or VR glasses. To this end, haptic research started a few decades ago with the aim of improving this interaction through a sense of touch. A key element, hitherto not researched, is the effective combination of virtual elastic, viscous, and inertial effects in haptic feedback restored to the user and the safety implications of these feedback effects. It is of particular importance in neurological rehabilitation exercising, as interaction realism and safety are of great importance in therapy and for the patient. Therefore, this work addresses the stability analysis of the combination of three haptic effects—elastic, viscous, and inertial—and the subjective feeling on the part of users regarding different combinations of these effects. A theoretical analysis is presented with a view to establishing stable control principles, and a user-study was carried out in order to help understand the perception of users to different combinations of haptic effects.