Session: 16-01-01: Poster Session: NSF-Funded Research (Grad & Undergrad)

Paper Number: 99415

99415 - Forcebot: A Robotic Platform for Body-Scale Human Physical Interaction in Embodied Virtual Reality 

ForceBot is a robotic haptic interface for body-scale human physical interaction in virtual reality (VR). The motivation of this robotic platform is to embody the human pilot in VR space by combining robotic systems with human pilot. This robotic interface maps the bodily user motion to a virtual avatar, enables interaction with simulated scenarios corresponding to various purposes. To render realistic sensational perception, ForceBot applies position and force feedback according to the interaction between the avatar and VR. This body-scale haptic interface elevates the fidelity of sensational feedback that aims to be a dynamic scenario generator to assist a broad group of society. This robotic platform makes a wide variety of applications accessible by exploiting robotic systems and VR technologies. This simulated and controlled environment provides advancement to explore VR technologies, in the field of human-robot interaction with multiple directions, such as conducting training protocol, industrial prototyping evaluation, teleoperation interface, and scientific study.

The concept of ForceBot presents a great challenge to design and control of a human-robot coupled system. VR immersion relies on transparent human-robot interaction, that requires low-latency simultaneous manipulation of robotic systems. Furthermore, both control algorithm and ergonomics of the haptic interface commit to the safety and response of the device. With the aid of human motion capture data, ForceBot aligns the human motion with the robotic workspace creating a secure and unrestricted human-robot interactive environment. The system utilizes a pair of robotic arms (PANDA, Franka Emika), a pair of VR haptic gloves (HatpX), VR equipment (VIVE, HTC), and two built-in-house planar gantry systems to deliver sensational force feedback. The robotic arms and the gantry systems are connected to the user's arms and feet by mounting on a base frame alongside the human pilot. The central computer is responsible for controlling and operating the system in real-time capable Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) open-source robotic software and expanded to manage communications with all the robotic sub-systems in ForceBot via Ethernet based communication. The VR rendering computer forms the VR world, characterizes the virtual avatar with the mapped user information, and specifies virtual environment boundaries for the central computer to calculate the interaction forces. This system architecture enables ForceBot to be a versatile simulated testbed that benefits both industrial and research fields as a dynamic scenario generator.

The goal of ForceBot being a reformative approach for the society to explore VR technologies relies on how robot-based active haptic simulation can adapt to a variety of tasks, environments, and people, with the knowledge of robot dynamics and algorithms for personalized human motion recognition and prediction. This robotic platform will enable identifying hazards before the technology is deployed in the physical world and hence optimize the design. Moreover, ForceBot introduces students as STEM workforce by establishing collaboration of the academia with the industry.

Presenting Author: An-Chi He Virginia Tech

Presenting Author Biography: An-Chi's primary focus is the development of Haptic interface with VR interaction. With the research interest in robotics, biomechanics, control, and industrial background, An-Chi joined TREC lab to pursue his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. His current project is the ForceBot which serves as a full-body interaction simulation device by exploiting technologies such as VR and robot manipulation for human-machine interface, which serves as a dynamic scenario generator for various applications.

Authors:

An-Chi He Virginia Tech
Bhaben Kalita Virginia Tech
Alexander Leonessa Virginia Tech,