On the role of cutaneous force in teleoperation: subtracting kinesthesia from complete haptic feedback

A study on the role of cutaneous and kinesthetic force feedback in teleoperation is presented. Cutaneous cues provide less transparency than kinesthetic force feedback but they do not affect the stability of the teleoperation system. On the other hand, kinesthesia provides a realistic illusion of telepresence but it affects the stability of the haptic loop. Several well-established control techniques ensure a stable interaction by scaling down force feedback as and when required, in order to satisfy the controller stability conditions (e.g., passivity). We here discuss the feasibility of a novel approach to improve the realism of the haptic rendering while preserving its stability: can cutaneous stimuli be employed to compensate for the lack of kinesthetic feedback required to guarantee the stability of the teleoperation loop? We carried out two experiments to evaluate the role of cutaneous cues in teleoperation and the performance improvement rate when compensating a lack of kinesthesia with cutaneous force. Results showed improved performance while employing the aforementioned compensation technique and a high comfort in using the proposed system.