Sensory Perception & Interaction Research Group

This paper describes a platform devised to explore the impaet on task execution in a virtual environment of the quality, and therefore cost of the system’s haptic hardware. This platform is a complex haptic interface in whieh hardware quality can be varied in simulation. Software intercepts the position and force signals between the haptic hardware and the virtual environment software, and alters them to supply the effect of increased friction, cogging, backlash, inertia andor lower force output. Au parameters of the introduced effects can be set independently or in combination and on a continuous scale; a primary contribution is the creation of haptically realistic effect models that are stable in Combination on complex hardware. This work is part of a larger project in which we will test the effect of the simulated degradations on surgeons’ performanee in simulated laparoscopic tasks.