# A Soft Fabric-Based Thermal Haptic Device for VR and Teleoperation

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a lightweight, fabric-based thermal-haptic device for VR and teleoperation that provides rapid thermal feedback and force sensations, improving user interaction accuracy and success rates.

## Contribution

It presents a novel ultra-lightweight, fully soft fabric-based thermal-haptic interface integrating pneumatic actuation and heating elements for enhanced VR and teleoperation experiences.

## Key findings

- High thermal modulation rate up to 3°C/s
- High temperature identification accuracy of 0.98
- Significant improvement in manipulation success rates and force control

## Abstract

This paper presents a novel fabric-based thermal-haptic interface for virtual reality and teleoperation. It integrates pneumatic actuation and conductive fabric with an innovative ultra-lightweight design, achieving only 2~g for each finger unit. By embedding heating elements within textile pneumatic chambers, the system delivers modulated pressure and thermal stimuli to fingerpads through a fully soft, wearable interface. Comprehensive characterization demonstrates rapid thermal modulation with heating rates up to 3$^{\circ}$C/s, enabling dynamic thermal feedback for virtual or teleoperation interactions. The pneumatic subsystem generates forces up to 8.93~N at 50~kPa, while optimization of fingerpad-actuator clearance enhances cooling efficiency with minimal force reduction. Experimental validation conducted with two different user studies shows high temperature identification accuracy (0.98 overall) across three thermal levels, and significant manipulation improvements in a virtual pick-and-place tasks. Results show enhanced success rates (88.5\% to 96.4\%, p = 0.029) and improved force control precision (p = 0.013) when haptic feedback is enabled, validating the effectiveness of the integrated thermal-haptic approach for advanced human-machine interaction applications.