Networked haptic cooperation using remote dynamic proxies

Networked haptic cooperation entails direct interaction among users as well as joint manipulation of virtual ob-jects. To increase the realism of both types of interactions, this paper introduces remote dynamic proxies. Remote dy-namic proxies are second order dynamic representations of users at the remote peer sites. They are generated accord-ing to dynamics laws and are controlled by the user whom they represent through a virtual coupler. Hence, they move in a physically intuitive manner and do not suffer from posi-tion discontinuities due to network packet transmission lim-itations. The remote dynamic proxies are integrated into a distributed control architecture for networked haptic coop-eration. An experimental comparison of the new controller to two recently proposed controllers demonstrates smoother rendering of contact between users, as well as stable coop-eration for larger network delays. 1