Abstract—A recent trend in virtual environments aims at making the user free of devices or limitations in its motion, at the benefit of immersiveness and interactivity. This work introduces an interaction paradigm that goes beyond motion based interaction, by making use of measured real forces exerted by the user in free space. The sensation of touch with virtual object is obtained by vibrotactile stimulation combining virtual contact information with measured forces. In this way the user has an additional dimension of interactivity at the benefit of immersivity, without incurring in the reduction of sense of presence introduced by grounded haptic interfaces. This paradigm is presented and discussed in particular in the context of a boxing training simulation, as one of the possible application scenarios.

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EXOSTATION is an ESA-funded project aiming at developing a complete haptic control chain. The demonstrator is composed of a 7-DOF portable arm exoskeleton master, controlling an anthropomorphic slave robot interacting with its working environment. This system is meant to be used in telemanipulation and telepresence modes (master/slave control), making it usable in many applications including space exploration missions (planetary surface exploration and surface habitat construction), medicine, CBRNE crisis management (interventions requiring precise remote manipulation or performed in unstructured environment), industrial environments (remote maintenance).

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Exoskeleton robotic system is a feasible solution that can help people with locomotion difficulties walk again. This system equipped around the human body can support the load and a part of the body weight, enlarging the load-bearing capacity and endurance of the biological system. The corresponding components of the exoskeleton system, such as the power capacitor and transmission, kinematic energy transmission, degrees of freedom of motions and adjustments for different wearers, are of great importance as well as the frame and ergonomic designs. Exoskeleton robots are developed in many countries, including the US, Japan, South Korea and Israel, etc. They are oriented into different usages – both military and medical devices. University of Tsukuba proposed a commercial exoskeleton robot, Hybrid Assistive Limb, for patient walking and stair-climbing assistances. US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) supported a multi-million project in “Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation” and help rapid progresses in the researches and developments on exoskeleton robot field.

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Many countries of the world including Japan will become a full-fledged aged society. According to report in Japan, the elderly population aged 65 years or over in Japan will number 33 million and will account for more than 25 percent of the population. We have to support the elderly for independence in old age so that a variety of lifestyles is possible. With the development of the robot technologies, robotics researchers have developed various kinds of human assist robot such as walking aid system and manipulation aid system for supporting the elderly.

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This thesis presents the preliminary work in the development of a biomimetic actuation mechanism for prosthetic and wearable robotic hand applications. This work investigates the use of novel artificial muscle technology, namely, shape memory alloys. The mechanism developed is based on the combination of compliant tendon cables and one-way shape memory alloy wires that form a set of agonist–antagonist artificial muscle pairs for the required flexion/extension or abduction/adduction of the finger joints. For the purpose of this thesis, an anthropomorphic four degree of freedom artificial testbed was developed with the same kinematic properties as the human finger. Hence, the size, appearance and kinematic architec-ture of the index finger were efficiently and practically mimicked. The biomimetic actuation scheme was implemented on the anthropomorphic artificial finger and tested, in an ad-hoc fashion, with a simple microcontroller-based pulse width modulated proportional derivation (PWD-PD) feedback controller. The tests were done to experimentally validate the performance of the actuation mechanism as emulating the natural finger’s joints movement. This thesis details the work done for the finger design process as well as the mechanisms and material used to achieve the actuation and control objectives. The results of the experiments done with the actuation platform are also presented.

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