Improving Mobile Robot Control: Sensory Feedback for Touch Interfaces

Extended Abstract—In recent years, touch screen technology has progressed rapidly and has increased in popularity with developers and consumers alike. Touch screen devices, in the forms of shopping kiosks, ATMs, tablet PCs, and smart phones, are now a very prevalent fact of everyday life. Ironically, in more technologically advanced applications such as telerobotics, touch screens are infrequently utilized. Specifically, in a military context, even Foster-Miller’s popular Talon robot has more conventional controls (i.e. joystick and keyboard). Despite their minimal use in robotics, touch screens offer unique advantages over the conventional keyboard and mouse. Touch screens eliminate the need for additional physical devices and allow the user to interact in a direct and natural manner with the system at hand. Conversely, the problems associated with touch screen use are also becoming more apparent. Perhaps the greatest challenge that needs to be addressed is the lack of haptic feedback provided to the user by touch screen interfaces. While visual and auditory feedback is integrated into many devices [1, 2], our sense of touch is oftentimes not stimulated. Even one of the most widely used touch screen devices, Apple’s iPhone, provides limited, if any, tactile feedback. Without any kind of contoured surface or button, inputting information on a touch screen is difficult and many times imprecise. Additionally, the user must look directly at the device to avoid pressing the wrong item. This limitation creates a dilemma with regard to telerobotics, which requires that the user pay attention to and guide the physical movement of the robot. The aim of this work is to devise a system that adds haptic feedback to touch screens without a separate physical device in order to improve teleoperated mobile robot control and eliminate the nuisance of nonessential feedback. To attain this goal, this paper presents and tests a solution that integrates a “smart” wireless vibration circuit with a touch screen system.