RoomShift: Room-scale Dynamic Haptics for VR with Furniture-moving Swarm Robots

TL;DR

RoomShift introduces a room-scale dynamic haptic system using a swarm of shape-changing robots to physically manipulate furniture in VR, enhancing immersive interaction with virtual environments.

Contribution

It presents a novel robotic swarm system that dynamically reconfigures physical furniture to match virtual scenes in real-time for VR experiences.

Findings

Robots can lift and move furniture accurately in VR settings.

Users can interact with physical furniture as if it were part of the virtual scene.

The system enables new immersive VR applications like virtual tours and architectural design.

Abstract

RoomShift is a room-scale dynamic haptic environment for virtual reality, using a small swarm of robots that can move furniture. RoomShift consists of nine shape-changing robots: Roombas with mechanical scissor lifts. These robots drive beneath a piece of furniture to lift, move and place it. By augmenting virtual scenes with physical objects, users can sit on, lean against, place and otherwise interact with furniture with their whole body; just as in the real world. When the virtual scene changes or users navigate within it, the swarm of robots dynamically reconfigures the physical environment to match the virtual content. We describe the hardware and software implementation, applications in virtual tours and architectural design and interaction techniques.