Continuous Closed-Loop 4-Degree-of-Freedom Holdable Haptic Guidance

Haptic guidance can be beneficial for aiding or training human users in many applications, such as teleoperation, rehabilitation, and navigation. Existing world-grounded haptic devices can provide effective multi-degree-of-freedom movement guidance. Wearable or holdable haptic devices can enable larger workspaces and unencumbered movement, but their use in guidance beyond one or two degrees of freedom has been limited. A holdable haptic device, called the Pantogripper, was previously presented in a study demonstrating its intuitive, directional guidance cues in four separate degrees of freedom. Here, using the same device, we present a controller for providing continuous closed-loop guidance for path following. In a human study, participants followed translation and rotation guidance from the device to successfully traverse three 3D paths with either no visual feedback or only a visual preview of the paths. Results indicate promise for holdable haptic devices to effectively provide high-degree-of-freedom movement guidance when visual guidance is unavailable or unsuitable.