JP2009113184A - Passive kinesthetic sense feedback device and passive kinesthetic sense feedback system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a device for performing passive kinesthetic sense feedback by applying a force to a part of the body of a person and also provide its application system. <P>SOLUTION: This passive kinesthetic sense feedback device is installed on body of a person such as the brachial and the forearm. The body of the device comprises an actuator and a sensor to provide a passive kinesthetic sense to a part of the body. A remote-control system and a kinesthetic sense training system are also provided by using the passive kinesthetic sense feedback device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a device for feeding back a force sensation to a human and a force feedback system using the same.

Force sensation is very important when working in contact with the external environment, such as when a person grips an object or operates a tool or machine. Although human beings can estimate to some extent the force exerted on the object based on the amount of visual deformation of the object and various other information, it is not possible to perform work that requires adjustment of the force without force sense Very difficult. Therefore, many haptic devices have been developed in connection with remote control systems and virtual reality systems.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-097205 “Force Display Device” Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-200140 “Force Display Method and Force Pen Tablet” JP 2000-322131A “Passive Force Display Device” In many of these studies, the sensation of operating a remote or virtual object directly is considered important. In order to realize this sensation, the reaction force when gripping an object with a finger is generally fed back to the fingertip, and the reaction force when contacting an object via a tool or robot is fed back to the gripping part. is there. For example, in the case of a haptic presentation system that has a single point of contact with the external environment, such as SensAble Technologies PHANToM, and that operates the tool with a relatively narrow operating range, external force is applied to the tool. The 6-axis force is applied and the device can be constructed relatively easily.

However, when grasping an object with two fingers or multiple fingers, when the grasping hand comes into contact with the external environment, or when working in a relatively large work space, it is strictly haptic in complex work and complex environments. When it comes to realizing the presentation, for example, like Immersion's CyberForce System, it becomes a practical problem that the device becomes large and complicated.
For this reason, there are many examples of research and development, but there are few examples where a force feedback device or a system having a force feedback function is put into practical use.

When performing tasks that require force adjustment, the number of haptic information important for each task is never large. For example, when gripping an object, even if the gripping force is not directly fed back, it is easy to work simply by measuring the gripping force and displaying it on the screen, or feeding back the force applied by sound or vibration. Become.
Therefore, in the passive force feedback device according to claim 1, in the human body, any of the forearm, upper arm, head, neck, abdomen, thigh, lower leg, palm, back of the hand, fingers, etc. It is installed in one or more places, and the device is equipped with an actuator, and any one method or several methods such as pressing, pinching, grasping, pinching, tightening, etc., are applied to the part of the human body shown above. By using it, a passive force sense is fed back to humans.
In a general haptic presentation system, the operation input unit and the haptic feedback unit are integrated in the master device handled by the operator. For example, when a force sense is fed back to the fingertip or wrist part, humans can also generate force at the fingertip or wrist part to which the force sense is fed back. Force interferes.
In contrast, the force feedback device according to the present invention is attached to a part of the operator's body, but the place where a human outputs an action or force differs from the place where the passive force feedback device is attached. , Haptic information to be fed back can be fed back passively, separated from its own output.
The place where the passive force feedback device according to the present invention is worn does not include places where the operator can apply reaction force to the output of the device, such as fingertips and wrist parts. Wearing on fingers is limited to cases where passive force sensation can be presented, such as pinching and tightening around fingers.
Since the passive force feedback device according to the present invention can be installed separately from the operation input unit, it can be realized with a low degree of freedom, and since a part of the human body is a presentation unit, a large output is also required. do not do. For this reason, it is very advantageous from the viewpoint of device development. In addition, force sense feedback function should be presented to the remote control system, which has been difficult for force sense feedback, and sensory feedback of electric prosthetic hands should be presented. It can be applied when there is no place.

  Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the passive force feedback device of the present invention. This device is attached to the upper arm and feeds back the force sense by sandwiching the upper arm.
In the present invention, the actuator 2 and the sensor 3 are installed in the main body 1, and the rotational force is transmitted to the first shaft 4 and the second shaft 5 through wires. At this time, the first shaft 4 and the second shaft 5 rotate in the opposite direction at the same angle. Then, the first link 6 attached to the first shaft 4 and the second link 7 attached to the second shaft 5 each move in the opposite direction, and the force 8 is fed back to the human by sandwiching the arm 8. .
Fig. 2 shows a photograph of the passive force feedback device, and Fig. 3 shows the state when the passive force feedback device is worn on the upper arm.

Fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a hand-gripping passive force feedback device. An actuator 12 and a sensor 13 are installed in the main body 11, and the first shaft 14 and the second shaft 15 are driven through wires. A first finger base portion 16 and a second finger root portion 17 are fixed to the main body 1, and a first finger intermediate portion 19, a second finger intermediate portion 20, and a first finger are respectively passed through the passive joints 18 to the ends. The tip 21 and the second finger tip 22 are connected.
The first shaft 14 and the second shaft 15 are connected to the first finger tip portion 21 and the second finger tip portion 22 via wires, respectively, and the fingers are opened and closed by winding these wires. The arm 23 is grasped by and the force sense is presented to the human. Since the first and second fingers each have a passive joint, the arm can be grasped according to the shape of the arm 23.

  Figure 5 shows a schematic diagram of a belt-clamped passive force feedback device. An actuator 32 and a sensor 33 are installed in the main body 31, and a pulley 34 connected to the output shaft of the actuator is driven. A belt 35 is connected to the pulley 34 and is arranged around the arm 36. By driving the pulley 34 by the actuator 32 and winding the belt 35, the arm 36 is tightened, and a sense of force is presented to the human.

  Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a power prosthesis system capable of presenting reaction force using a passive force feedback device. The operator 41 wears a power prosthesis 42 on his / her hand. The power prosthesis 42 is operated using myoelectricity. At this time, the gripping force of the object by the prosthetic hand is measured at the tip of the prosthetic hand, and this gripping force is fed back to the operator using the passive force feedback device 43.

Figure 7 shows a schematic diagram of a training system that trains the application of force using a passive force feedback device. In this example, multiple trainees 51 are wearing passive force feedback devices 52. Force data 53 including the magnitude, timing, pattern, etc. of the force to be trained is input to these devices and presented to the trainee by the device, so that the force magnitude, timing, pattern, etc. are passively applied to a part of the body. Experience and train.
Note that the above embodiment is merely an example of some specific examples of the present invention. The scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned form, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the technical idea, such as the mounting location and the force sense presentation method.

It is the schematic of the pinching type passive force feedback apparatus of Example 1 by this invention. It is a photograph of the pinching type passive force feedback apparatus of Example 1 by this invention. It is a photograph when the pinching type passive force feedback device of Example 1 according to the present invention is attached to the upper arm. It is the schematic of the grasp type passive force feedback apparatus of Example 2 by this invention. It is the schematic of the clamping type passive force feedback apparatus of Example 3 by this invention. It is the schematic of the power prosthetic hand system which can perform gripping force feedback using the passive force feedback apparatus of Example 4 by this invention. It is the schematic of the force data training system using the passive force feedback apparatus of Example 5 by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1: Body 2: Actuator 3: Sensor 4: First axis 5: Second axis 6: First link 7: Second link 8: Arm 11: Body 12: Actuator 13: Sensor 14: First axis 15: Second Axis 16: First finger root 17: Second finger root 18: Passive joint 19: First finger middle 20: Second finger middle 21: First finger tip 22: Second finger tip 23: Arm 31: Body 32: Actuator 33: Sensor 34: Pulley 35: Belt 36: Arm 41: Operator 42: Power prosthesis 43: Passive force feedback device 51: Trainer 52: Passive force feedback device 53: Force sense data

Claims (4)

In the human body, the forearm, upper arm, head, neck, abdomen, thigh, lower leg, palm, back of the hand, fingers, etc. It is passive to humans by using any one method or multiple methods such as pressing, pinching, grasping, pinching, and tightening a part of the human body shown above with a device. A passive force feedback device, characterized by feedback of force sense. A haptic feedback system, characterized in that in the master / slave type remote operation system, the passive haptic feedback device according to claim 1 is used for the master system, and the haptic information in the slave is fed back to the operator. A power prosthetic hand system using the passive force feedback device according to claim 1 to feed back the grip force of the prosthetic hand to an operator. In a training system for training force application, the trainer wears the passive force feedback device according to claim 1 and trains the magnitude, timing, pattern, etc. of the force to be trained. Training system that can train one name or multiple people at the same time.