Influence of Vibration Modes and Human Operator on the Stability of Haptic Rendering

Developing stable controllers, which are able to display virtual objects with high stiffness, is a persistent challenge in the field of haptics. This paper addresses the effect of internal vibration modes and the human operator on the maximum achievable virtual stiffness. An 11-parameter mechanical model is used to adequately characterize the overall system dynamics. Experiments that are carried out on LHIfAM and PHANToM haptic interfaces demonstrate the importance of vibration modes to determine the critical stiffness when the user grasps the device.