Haptic Rendering with the Toolhandle Haptic Interface

This thesis describes the design of the hardware and software for a haptic interface system. A haptic interface allows a human "observer" to explore and interact with a virtual environment using the sense of touch. Haptic interface systems include three main components: the haptic interface (usually an electro-mechanical system capable of exerting forces on a user), a model of the environment to be touched, and a rendering algorithm which unites the first two by generating the feedback forces based on the environment model. This thesis focuses on the first and third of these components: a haptic interface, the MIT-Toolhandle, and haptic rendering algorithms for simulating general real-world virtual environments. The MIT-Toolhandle is a ground-based force-feedback device designed to allow subjects to use tools to interact with virtual environments. One of the difficulties of haptic interfaces is simulating both the human's kinesthetic and tactile system. Tool interactions are interestin..