
HapticLever: Kinematic Force Feedback using a 3D Pantograph
Marcus Friedel
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
marcus.friedel@ucalgary.ca
Ehud Sharlin
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
ehud@cpsc.ucalgary.ca
Ryo Suzuki
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada
ryo.suzuki@ucalgary.ca
Figure 1: HapticLever is a design concept for large-scale VR haptics which passively transforms a small-scale constraint into
a sti, realistic, large-scale render.
ABSTRACT
HapticLever is a new kinematic approach for VR haptics which
uses a 3D pantograph to stiy render large-scale surfaces using
small-scale proxies. The HapticLever approach does not consume
power to render forces, but rather puts a mechanical constraint on
the end eector using a small-scale proxy surface. The HapticLever
approach provides sti force feedback when the user interacts with
a static virtual surface, but allows the user to move their arm freely
when moving through free virtual space. We present the problem
space, the related work, and the HapticLever design approach.
CCS CONCEPTS
•Human-centered computing →Virtual reality
;
Haptic de-
vices.
KEYWORDS
haptics, force feedback, virtual reality, robotics, user interfaces
ACM Reference Format:
Marcus Friedel, Ehud Sharlin, and Ryo Suzuki. 2022. HapticLever: Kinematic
Force Feedback using a 3D Pantograph. In The Adjunct Publication of the
35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology
(UIST ’22 Adjunct), October 29-November 2, 2022, Bend, OR, USA. ACM, New
York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3526114.3558736
Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or
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For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s).
UIST ’22 Adjunct, October 29-November 2, 2022, Bend, OR, USA
©2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-9321-8/22/10.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3526114.3558736
1 INTRODUCTION AND RELATED WORK
Rendering large-scale, high-stiness shapes and surfaces remains
a challenge in haptics. Most of today’s haptic devices are hand-
held [
10
,
16
,
17
] or focus on hand and nger haptics [
2
,
7
,
8
,
18
].
Those which attempt to render a net force on the user [
6
,
11
,
14
]
are unable to render sti interactions. Haptic devices designed for
large-scale interactions either use a force-based dynamics approach
or a force-independent kinematics approach. Dynamics approaches
to haptics are concerned with the forces on the user, whereas Kine-
matics approaches are concerned with the user’s allowed motion.
Large-scale, high-stiness physical interactions such as a hand on a
tabletop can be better represented as a degree of freedom reduction
of the hand, rather than as a time-series of applied forces.
Large-scale dynamics approaches [
1
,
3
,
24
] shake and oscillate
when rendering sti surfaces, must consumer power to render any
force, and encumber the user with a constant resistance. These
devices shake and oscillate because of the cantilever eect on their
serial links and because they use a feedback control system which
interfaces with the unpredictable, unmodellable human user. The
maximum force these devices can apply is limited by the actuator
strength, and if users exceed this limit then the device will oscillate
or break. Because these devices directly actuate the mechanism
joints directly, they must consume power to engage a force, to
sustain a force, and often to compensate for gravity even when
not rendering a force. These devices constantly resist the user’s
motion because of acturator back-torque, in the case of impedance
control, or active motor pushback, in the case of admittance control.
The advantages of the dynamics approach are that it needs only to
provide an on-demand touchpoint for the user and that it is versatile
and can be programmed to render many dierent interactions.
Kinematics approaches primarily take the form of recongurable
proxies at large-scale and mechanical constraints at small-scale.
arXiv:2210.01362v1 [cs.HC] 4 Oct 2022