Haptic Interface for Handshake Emulation

This letter introduces a prototype of a haptic interface designed to produce a realistic human-robot handshake. Inspired by the human hand anatomy, a new robotic hand designed to achieve a realistic palm compliance and finger grasping is presented. As the system is backdrivable, a position-controlled feedback loop is implemented to render a human-like hand behavior. The overall arm motion is achieved through a collaborative serial manipulator. This manipulator uses an impedance control around a sinusoidal trajectory to simulate its intention or personality. Improved from the design proposed by the authors in previous work, the new prototype is easier to use, more efficient, more robust, and more comfortable with an active arm behavior. Experiments are then performed to determine the impact of different trajectory parameters, such as frequency, amplitude, and damping and stiffness coefficients, on the perceived realism of the handshake. It is shown that the amplitude has no impact in the range studied (10 to 30 mm), while a frequency of approximately 2 Hz is preferred. Ranges of values of the damping and stiffness coefficients yielding the best results are also determined. The experiments also allow the identification of potential improvements to be implemented on the prototype in the future.