Tele-operation of a Robot Arm with Electro Tactile Feedback

Tactile feedback from a remotely controlled robotic arm can facilitate certain tasks by enabling the user to experience tactile or force sensations from the robot's interaction with the environment. However, equipping both the robot and the user with tactile sensing and feedback systems can be complex, expensive, restrictive and application specific. This paper introduces a new tele-operation haptic feedback method involving electro-tactile feedback. This feedback system is inexpensive, easy to setup and versatile in that it can provide the user with a diverse range of tactile sensations and is suitable for a variety of tasks. We demonstrate the potential of our electro-tactile feedback system by providing experimental results showing how electro-tactile feedback from a tele-operated robotic arm equipped with range sensors can help with avoiding obstacles in cluttered workspace. We also show how interactive tasks, like placing a peg in a hole, can be facilitated with electro-tactile feedback from force sensors.