Towards an Understanding of the Utility of Dual-Modality Haptic Feedback in Teleoperated Medical Devices

Humans normally integrate multiple haptic signals during dexterous manipulation with the natural limb. Operating telerobots such as surgical robots and upper-limb prostheses removes this multimodality feedback. While considerable research has focused on single-modality haptic feedback and discrete multimodality haptic feedback, little is known regarding the utility of continuous multimodality feedback. Here, we present an experimental framework designed to explore continuous multimodality haptic feedback for dexterous manipulation. Participants performed a grasp-and-hold task in a virtual environment with either direct or myoelectric control under different haptic feedback conditions: no feedback, vibrotactile feedback of object slip, squeeze feedback of grip force, and combined vibrotactile and squeeze feedback. Results from preliminary pilot studies highlight the gap in knowledge surrounding the potential utility of continuous multimodality feedback in differing telerobot control scenarios.