ElectroHMI - Testbed for stiffness-aware control of a compliant robot gripper based on electrotactile feedback as a human-machine interface
The TestBed covers the Robotics domain since it includes the control of a compliant robot gripper. It is envisioned to be controlled remotely by human operator who is guiding and assisting it. To improve the safety of interaction in the telemanipulation scenario we created for the TestBed, we use a variable stiffness actuator that employs two motors regulating both shaft position and stiffness.
However, an equally important aspect in telemanipulation is the sensory feedback to the human operator. The ideal goal is to achieve an illusion of being present at the remote site. In ElectroHMI TestBed we embed a wearable, multi-channel, lightweight electrotactile system providing feedback through a matrix electrode placed on the index finger. Based on explicit information about the position and stiffness of a compliant robot, proposed HMI provides better force control and safer grasp.
| Name of Principal Investigator: | Kosta Jovanović |
| Position / institutional role: | Associate professor |
| Info Email: | kostaj@etf.rs |
| ORCID persistent identifier (PID): | 0000-0002-9029-4465 |
| Name of Host Organization | University of Belgrade – School of Electrical Engineering (ETF) |
| Department or Lab | Department of Signals and Systems, ETF Robotics lab |
| Name of Building | Palace of Science |
| Physical Address | Kralja Milana 11, 11000 Beograd, Serbia |
| Website Links | https://robot.etf.bg.ac.rs |
| Institutional contact name | Kosta Jovanović |
| Institutional contact email | kostaj@etf.rs |
| Non-academic stakeholders |
| Industrial Partners; Startups; SMEs |
| Academic stakeholders |
| Undergraduate students; PhD students; MSc students; Researchers
Human factors/ergonomics students, industrial engineering students |
| Other types of stakeholders |
| HRI labs, haptics labs, control systems researchers |
| Application case: | Short description: |
| Research and educational use for improving feedback clarity and bio-inspired control | supports experiments on grasping objects of different characteristics, improving anticipation of object fragility, reducing slip or damage, and exploring alternative feedback coding strategies and stimulation locations |
list of hardware components with their brief descriptions:
1. Compliant actuator – one segment of qb move advanced, an agonistic/antagonistic variable stiffness actuator with two fingers forming a gripper; USB and RS485 communication, nominal torque 5.5 Nm, nominal speed 5.5 rad/s, nominal voltage 24 V, variable stiffness range 0.5-83.5 Nm/rad, active rotation angle +/-180 degrees, weight 0.45 kg, dimensions 66x66x66 mm.
2. Logitech Extreme 3D PRO joystick – used for operator control; 12 programmable buttons, 8-way hat switch, twist rudder control.
3. Electrotactile stimulation system – three matrix electrodes with six pads each plus a stimulation unit generating current-controlled biphasic charge-balanced pulses with configurable pulse width, pulse rate, and amplitude.
4. Laptop PC with Windows OS 2008 or newer.
list of software components with their brief descriptions:
1. MATLAB and Simulink 2020a or newer with installed qbmove Simulink libraries.
2. qb API C++ Libraries for control and parameter setting of the qb move advanced robot.