Funabot-Grab: Tactile Internet for Grabbed Tactile with Fabric Actuator and Force Distribution Sensor

Fabric actuator (Funabot) is expected to be applied to the haptic device. On the other hand, conventional control method in fabric actuator only feeding back the surface shape by depth sensor, although haptic device evokes the tactile via the direct contact between the device and the human body. We developed the haptic device for grabbing and established the leader-follower system that include force distribution sensors and realized measuring the leader-side tactile as the distribution information, sending the follower-side and tracking the static distribution by feed-back control at the follower-side. The basic performance was verified by two experiments with the soft torso made of silicone in the static condition. The first experiment clarified that our device had an independent controllable tightening force of at least 7.9 N for seven channels in a 2 cm width. The second experiment proved that our device could track the leader tactile force within the error of 0.21 N in most cases. While the tracking performance was admitted, response performance was slow because of the characteristics of artificial muscle.