Haptic Rendering of Thin, Deformable Objects with Spatially Varying Stiffness

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel physics-based haptic rendering method for thin, deformable objects with spatially varying stiffness, using Kirchhoff plate theory and area-preserving mapping for realistic tactile feedback.

Contribution

It presents a new approach combining Kirchhoff thin plate theory with Gall-Peters mapping to efficiently render complex deformable objects with varying stiffness.

Findings

Validated through user experiments showing realism

Efficient computation of deformation for complex surfaces

Applicable to haptic rendering of soft, inhomogeneous objects

Abstract

In the real world, we often come across soft objects having spatially varying stiffness, such as human palm or a wart on the skin. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to render thin, deformable objects having spatially varying stiffness (inhomogeneous material). We use the classical Kirchhoff thin plate theory to compute the deformation. In general, the physics-based rendering of an arbitrary 3D surface is complex and time-consuming. Therefore, we approximate the 3D surface locally by a 2D plane using an area-preserving mapping technique - Gall-Peters mapping. Once the deformation is computed by solving a fourth-order partial differential equation, we project the points back onto the original object for proper haptic rendering. The method was validated through user experiments and was found to be realistic.