Collision-avoidance trajectory planning for a virtual kinesthetic feedback system

This paper proposes the collision-avoidance trajectory design and simulation of a virtual kinesthetic feedback system. The system has two sliders driven in two tracks, respectively, and produces virtual masses when the user holds and moves the system. Trajectory planning considering both the ideal and constrained scenarios in applications is carried out. A collision-avoidance trajectory is designed based on the quintic polynomial, and the influence of the time interval and the switching point is discussed. Simulations were performed to verify the function of the system. The results show that without constraints, the system can produce prescribed virtual masses. The displacements of the slider are affected by the error between the prescribed virtual mass and the real mass of the system. With the constraints of the tracks' lengths, the produced virtual masses are altered from the prescribed. Adjusting the time interval and the switching point could optimize the performance of the system when the geometric parameters of the system are set.