Design and Testing of Two Haptic Devices Based on Reconfigurable 2R Joints

This paper presents the design and testing of two haptic devices, based on reconfigurable 2R joints: an active 2R spherical mechanism-based joint and a differential gear-based joint. Based on our previous works, in which the design and kinematic analysis of both reconfigurable joints were developed, the experimental setup and the various tasks intended to test the reconfigurability, precision, force feedback system and general performance, are presented herein. Two control modes for the haptic device operation are proposed and studied. The statistical analysis tools and their selection principles are described. The mechanical design of two experimental setups and the main elements are considered in detail. The Robot Operating System nodes and the topics that are used in the software component of the experimental setup are presented and explained. The experimental testing was carried out with a number of participants and the corresponding results were analyzed with the selected statistical tools. A detailed interpretation and discussion on of the results is provided.