H3Kit: Hand-Held Haptic Kit for STEM Education

The majority of educational haptic devices to date are grounded to a stationary surface, limiting the concepts that can be taught. In this work, we introduce the Hand-Held Haptic Kit (H
³
Kit) — a body-grounded, kinesthetic feedback device for STEM education. We present a kinematic analysis that illustrates how the reachable workspace can differ depending on whether or not there is joint alignment between the device and the user. We then conduct a psychophysical study that shows that users’ perception of stiffness forces are not significantly impacted by joint misalignment. Lastly, we demonstrate the use of the H
³
Kit for teaching the concept of drag forces, which leverages its ungrounded nature and added sensing capabilities.