Development of Haptic Pointing Devices Under the Variable Admittance Control Theory

Abstract

The pointing operation using a mouse is widely implemented as a method for an operator to intuitively operate a pointer on a display. However, the dynamic characteristics of the pointing operation and pointer movement, such as inertia and viscosity, cannot be adjusted using ordinary pointing devices. As an alternative to a mouse pointing system, in this study, we propose a novel haptic pointing system in which the dynamic characteristics of the pointing operation and pointer movement can be adjusted using a robot manipulator under mechanical variable admittance control. The dynamic characteristics of the robot motion and pointer movement are varied sequentially during the pointing operation by varying the inertial and viscosity parameters of the proposed admittance control strategy using a mechanical device attached to the robot manipulator. The experiment was conducted to reveal the effectiveness of adjusting the pointer movement dynamics by modifying the pointer movement control loop and the ratio of the operating force with respect to the amount of pointer movement. The experimental results demonstrated that the performance of the pointing operation was improved by appropriately adjusting the pointer movement dynamics.