Haptic Gloves With Compact Finger Mechanism Using Active and Passive Actuation

Most haptic gloves are complicated interfaces with many actuators. If the gloves were more compact and simpler, they would greatly increase our ability to interact with virtual worlds in a more natural way. This research explored design of force feedback gloves with a new finger mechanism. The mechanism enabled application of distributed forces at the bottom surface of the fingers while reducing the number of actuators. Most glove designs available in the literature apply a reaction force only to the fingertips. Two prototype gloves were built using (1) DC servo motors, and (2) brakes filled with magnetorheological fluid. The glove with MR-brakes is lighter and simpler than the one with motors. However, the glove with motors enabled much faster task completion times.