"HapticVive" - A point contact encounter haptic solution with the HTC VIVE and Baxter Robot

With the release of various low cost consumer head mounted displays, such as the HTC Vive, virtual reality (VR) visualisation technology is becoming common place. However, haptic interactions continue to lag behind the visual developments. Touch feedback from the HTC Vive system is only provided by way of vibrations in the physical controllers. There are currently no large scale haptic devices that allow a user to experience force feedback in a room scale VR environment. The research presented in this paper demonstrates this problem can be addressed through the use of a large robotic arm to create an encounter haptic solution. Our haptic VR system uses the HTC Vive and the Baxter robot. Positional data is taken from the Vive controllers and sent to one of the Baxter's 7 degrees of freedom arms, which is used to provide force feedback to the user. An experiment was created where a user pushes wooden boxes off a wall in a VR environment. Several tests were performed. Different virtual boxes with a different simulated weight were simulated by varying the speed at which the Baxter moves away from the user. Results from a thirty participant user study indicate that desirable haptic effects can be achieved in a large room scale environment.