The Rutgers Master II-ND force feedback glove

Abstract

The Rutgers Master II-ND glove is a follow up on the earlier Rutgers Master II haptic interface. The redesigned glove has all the sensing placed on palm support, avoiding routing wires to the fingertips. It uses custom pneumatic actuators arranged in a direct-drive configuration between the palm and the thumb, index middle and ring fingers. The supporting glove used in the RMII design is eliminated, thus the RMII-ND can better accommodate varying hand sizes. The glove is connected to a haptic control interface that reads its sensors and servos its actuators. The interface pneumatic pulse-width modulated servo-valves have higher bandwidth than those used in the earlier RMII, resulting in better force control. A comparison with the CyberGrasp commercial haptic glove is provided.