Design of a novel force feedback dataglove based on pneumatic artificial muscles

Based on pneumatic artificial muscles, the force feedback dataglove is an important interface designed for dexterous manipulations with virtual environments, which provides force display for every segment of the thumb, index and middle finger. The typical mechanism of exoskeleton structure is adopted to allow full range-of-motion of the hand, with the actuator system placed on the forearm. The exoskeleton structure also serves as the hand position measurement function, by integrating non-contact Anisotropic Magneto-resistive sensors. The actuator consists of the pneumatic muscle and brake system. The contracting force of muscle transmitted through the tendon sheath structure is measured by the cantilevered beam sensor installed inside the pedestal. The single PC-based control interface comprises of an industrial computer, pneumatic valves and electronic ISA-bus cards for reading the sensors and implementing pressure control. The grasping force calculated according to the object deformation as well as its modeled compliance is displayed to the finger by regulating the pressure in the muscles based on the Isometric characteristics.