Design of a Lightweight Force-Feedback Glove with a Large Workspace

A wearable force-feedback glove is a promising way to enhance the immersive sensation when a user interacts with virtual objects in virtual reality scenarios.Design challenges for such a glove include allowing a large fingertip workspace,providing a desired force sensation when simulating both free-and constrained-space interactions,and ensuring a lightweight structure.In this paper,we present a forcefeedback glove using a pneumatically actuated mechanism mounted on the dorsal side of the user’s hand.By means of a triple kinematic paired link with a curved sliding slot,a hybrid cam-linkage mechanism is proposed to transmit the resistance from the pneumatic piston rod to the fingertip.In order to obtain a large normal component of the feedback force on the user’s fingertip,the profile of the sliding slot was synthesized through an analysis of the force equilibrium on the triple kinematic paired link.A prototype five-fingered glove with a mass of 245 g was developed,and a wearable force-measurement system was constructed to permit the quantitative evaluation of the interaction performance in both free and constrained space.The experimental results confirm that the glove can achieve an average resistance of less than 0.1 N in free-space simulation and a maximum fingertip force of 4 N in constrained-space simulation.The experiment further confirms that this glove permits the finger to move freely to simulate typical grasping gestures.

Haptic display for virtual reality: progress and challenges

Immersion, interaction, and imagination are three features of virtual reality (VR). Existing VR systems possess fairly realistic visual and auditory feedbacks, and however, are poor with haptic feedback, by means of which human can perceive the physical world via abundant haptic properties. Haptic display is an interface aiming to enable bilateral signal communications between human and computer, and thus to greatly enhance the immersion and interaction of VR systems. This paper surveys the paradigm shift of haptic display occurred in the past 30 years, which is classified into three stages, including desktop haptics, surface haptics, and wearable haptics. The driving forces, key technologies and typical applications in each stage are critically reviewed. Toward the future high-fidelity VR interaction, research challenges are highlighted concerning handheld haptic device, multimodal haptic device, and high fidelity haptic rendering. In the end, the importance of understanding human haptic perception for designing effective haptic devices is addressed.

钠离子电池关键材料研究及工程化探索进展

“双碳”背景下,钠离子电池因成本低廉、安全环保和性能优异等优点受到社会各界的重点关注.低成本的钠离子电池是锂离子电池的有益补充,并将在储能领域展现自己的独特优势,现阶段钠离子电池正处于由实验室探索到产业化推进的关键节点.本文简要介绍了钠离子电池的研究背景,重点介绍了中国科学院物理研究所在钠离子电池关键材料(正极、负极和电解质)、基础理论和工程化探索方面取得的重要进展,对钠离子电池的未来发展方向进行了展望,以期推动钠离子电池的持续发展,加速钠离子电池的商业化应用.

Optimal design of a linkage-cam mechanism-based redundantly actuated parallel manipulator

A redundantly actuated parallel manipulator(RAPM)with mixed translational and rotational degrees of freedom(DOFs)is challenged for its dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian modeling and optimal design of architecture.In this paper,a means to achieve redundant actuation by adding kinematic constraints is introduced,which reduces the DOFs of the end-effector(EE).A generic dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian is developed for this type of RAPMs,which maps the generalized velocities of three points on the EE to the joint velocities.A new optimization algorithm derived from this dimension-ally homogeneous Jacobian is proposed for the optimal design of this type of RAPMs.As an example,this paper presents a spatial RAPM involving linkages and cam mechanisms.This RAPM has 4 DOFs and 6 translational actuations.The linkage lengths and the position of the universal joints of the RAPM are optimized based on the dimensionally homogeneous Jacobian.

Development of a masticatory robot using a novel cable-driven linear actuator with bidirectional motion

Masticatory robots are an effective in vitro performance testing device for dental material and mandibular prostheses.A cable-driven linear actuator(CDLA)capable of bidirectional motion is proposed in this study to design a masticatory robot that can achieve increasingly human-like chewing motion.The CDLA presents remarkable advantages,such as lightweight and high stiffness structure,in using cable amplification and pulley systems.This work also exploits the proposed CDLA and designs a masticatory robot called Southeast University masticatory robot(SMAR)to solve existing problems,such as bulky driving linkage and position change of the muscle’s origin.Stiffness analysis and performance experiment validate the CDLA’s efficiency,with its stiffness reaching 1379.6 N/mm(number of cable parts n=4),which is 21.4 times the input wire stiffness.Accordingly,the CDLA’s force transmission efficiencies in two directions are 84.5%and 85.9%.Chewing experiments are carried out on the developed masticatory robot to verify whether the CDLA can help SMAR achieve a natural human-like chewing motion and sufficient chewing forces for potential applications in performance tests of dental materials or prostheses.