Haptograph representation of real-world haptic information by wideband force control

Artificial acquisition and reproduction of human sensations are basic technologies in communication engineering. For example, auditory information is obtained by a microphone, and a speaker reproduces it by artificial means. Furthermore, a video camera and a television make it possible to transmit visual sensation by broadcasting. On the other hand, since tactile or haptic information is subject to Newton's "law of action and reaction" in the real world, a device that acquires, transmits, and reproduces information has not been established. From this perspective, real-world haptics is the key technology for future haptic communication engineering. This paper proposes a novel acquisition method for haptic information called a "haptograph". The haptograph visualizes the haptic information like a photograph. The proposed haptograph is applied to haptic recognition of the contact environment. A linear motor contacts the surface of the environment and its reaction force is used to make a haptograph. A robust contact motion and sensor-less sensing of the reaction force are attained by using a disturbance observer. As a result, an encyclopedia of the contact environment is obtained. Since temporal and spatial analyses are conducted to represent haptic information as the haptograph, intuitive recognition and evaluation are possible.