Impulsive forces for haptic rendering of rigid contacts

This paper presents a haptic rendering method that enables users to feel collisions while they interact with a multi-rigid-body virtual environment through a virtual tool. The virtual tool can be a rigid object or a linkage. Linkage collisions are rendered by extending a collision resolution method proposed for single bodies to articulated structures using a configuration-space representation of dynamics. The configuration-space collision resolution scheme is incorporated into a local model of interaction and used to compute impulsive forces upon contact between the virtual tool and other virtual objects. A four channel teleoperation controller optimized for transparency is used to apply the provably passive impulsive forces to the user’s hand. Experiments with a planar rigid virtual world validate the passivity of the impulsive forces.