Wearable haptics: from neurophysiology foundations to new wearable haptic designs and exoskeletons

This half-day Sunday afternoon (Feb 23, 2014) workshop focuses on wearable haptics. Wearable haptics are becoming an attractive field of research, referring to devices that can be worn on own body to provide haptic feedback. This has several applications, from rehab and human power augmentation, to haptic interaction with digital contents.
One class of devices is based on a promising design principle of wearable haptic systems that  look at cutaneous perception and stimulation as a direct consequence of improved wearability in haptics.
Part of this workshop intends to cover the topics of design of new wearable devices based on new insights in neurophysiology and advances in device design.
A second class of devices is concerned with exoskeleton designs, that can be used for active guidance of movement, such as in motor recovery in rehabilitation, or for assistance of movement, such as in power augmentation applications. This class of devices has recently received increased attention, and poses challenging technological issues in terms of control, design and usability.
This workshop will cover all basic issues concerned with the development of wearable haptic device, with particular focus on upper limb wearable systems.

AUDIENCE

The workshop is intended for both haptic researchers and students who are approaching novel designs in haptics, and that are interested to novel paradigms of haptic interaction.

PROGRAM

Program in brief

Section 1 Exoskeleton part

• "Using multistability of composite materials as novel actuation concept for exoskeleton", Lorenzo Masia IIT
• “X1: A Robotic Exoskeleton for In-Space Countermeasures and Dynamometry, and Terrestrial Mobility Assistance”, Shelley Rea or Chris Beck.,  NASA Johnson Space Center
• "Design, actuation and control of the MR-compatible equivalent of a wrist exoskeleton to study reaching movements during continuous fMRI", Fabrizio Sergi, Marcia O'Malley, Rice Univesity
• "Issues in the design of arm exoskeletons for rehabilitation: admittance vs impedance based design" Antonio Frisoli, Scuola Sant'Anna

• "Whole-body wearable haptics for navigation and immersive contents", Taku Hachisu, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, The University of Electro-Communications
• "Wearable haptics. cutaneous feedback and teleoperation" Domenico Prattichizzo, Claudio Pacchierotti University of Siena
• " Fingertip haptics for cutaneous feedback" Massimiliano Solazzi, Scuola Sant'Anna
• "Sensing the human hand: simplicity and optimality criteria for wearable systems'', Matteo Bianchi, Antonio Bicchi, University of Pisa
•  "Sensory feedback for smart prosthetics in grasp and lift tasks", Amy Blank, Marcia O'Malley, Rice University

Detailed program schedule

For further information please contact workshop organizers.