Claudio Pacchierotti

French National Centre for Scientific Research | CNRS · Institut des sciences de l'information et de leurs interactions (INS2I)

In this paper, we study how thermal haptic feedback can influence social interactions in virtual environments, with an emphasis on persuasion, focus, co-presence, and friendliness. Physical and social warmth have been repeatedly linked in psychological literature, which allows for speculations on the effect of thermal haptics on virtual social inte...

This letter introduces an end-to-end trajectory planning algorithm tailored for multi-UAV systems that generates collision-free trajectories in environments populated with both static and dynamic obstacles, leveraging point cloud data. Our approach consists of a 2-branch neural network fed with sensing and localization data, able to communicate int...

This paper introduces an end-to-end trajectory planning algorithm tailored for multi-UAV systems that generates collision-free trajectories in environments populated with both static and dynamic obstacles, leveraging point cloud data. Our approach consists of a 2-fork neural network fed with sensing and localization data, able to communicate interm...

The ability to manipulate and physically feel virtual objects without any real object being present and without equipping the user has been a long-standing goal in virtual reality (VR). Emerging ultrasound mid-air haptics (UMH) technology could potentially address this challenge, as it enables remote tactile stimulation of unequipped users. However...

We investigate the influence of thermal haptic feedback on stress during a cognitive task in virtual reality. We hypothesized that cool feedback would help reduce stress in such task where users are actively engaged. We designed a haptic system using Peltier cells to deliver thermal feedback to the left and right trapezius muscles. A user study was...

This paper investigates the influence of contact force applied to the human fingertip on the perception of hot and cold temperatures, studying how variations in contact force may affect the sensitivity of cutaneous thermoreceptors or their interpretation. A psychophysical experiment involved 18 participants exposed to cold (20 °C) and hot (38 °C) t...

In The last few years, we have witnessed the rapid development of many innovative devices and original techniques for providing haptic sensations, e.g., using force feedback, mid-air interfaces [1], [2], props and encounter-type devices [3], [4], or exploiting perceptual phenomena with cross-modal effects such as pseudo-haptics [5]. While increasin...

In this paper, we aim to find the conditions for input-state stability (ISS) and incremental input-state stability ( $\delta$ ISS) of Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNNs). We show that this recurrent version of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) can be expressed as a dynamical distributed system and, as a consequence, can be analysed using model-based te...

The precise manipulation of microrobots presents challenges arising from their small size and susceptibility to external disturbances. To address these challenges, we present the experimental evaluation of a haptic shared control teleoperation framework for the locomotion of multiple microrobots, relying on a kinesthetic haptic interface and a cust...

This paper investigates the relationship between fine motor skill training in VR, haptic feedback, and physiological arousal. To do so, we present the design and development of a motor skill task (buzzwire), along with a custom vibrotactile feedback attachment for the Geomagic Touch haptic device. A controlled experiment following a between-subject...

Ultrasound mid-air haptic (UMH) devices can remotely render vibrotactile shapes on the skin of unequipped users, e.g., to draw haptic icons or render virtual object shapes. Spatio-temporal modulation (STM), the state-of-the-art UMH shape rendering method, provides large freedom in shape design and produces the strongest possible stimuli for this te...

Digital Twins constitute a class of innovative data-intensive network-based computing solutions based on real-time interactive simulations of physical systems—Physical Twins—in multiple domains, representing and predicting the states of complex systems (from bacteria to cities). However, the variety of Digital Twins proposed in literature makes it...

This paper presents a 4-degrees-of-freedom (4-DoF) hand wearable haptic device for Virtual Reality (VR). It is designed to support different end-effectors, that can be easily exchanged so as to provide a wide range of haptic sensations. The device is composed of a static upper body, secured to the back of the hand, and the (changeable) end-effector...

In this paper, we aim to find the conditions for input-state stability (ISS) and incremental input-state stability ($\delta$ISS) of Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNNs). We show that this recurrent version of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) can be expressed as a dynamical distributed system and, as a consequence, can be analysed using model-based techn...

This paper studies the perception of 2-dimensional directional cues presented on a hand-held tangible interface that resembles a cylindrical handle. The tangible interface is designed to be comfortably held with one hand and houses five custom electromagnetic actuators composed of coils as stators and magnets as movers. We carried out a human subje...

Rich, informative and realistic haptic feedback is key to enhancing Virtual Reality (VR) manipulation. Tangible objects provide convincing grasping and manipulation interactions with haptic feedback of e.g., shape, mass and texture properties. But these properties are static, and cannot respond to interactions in the virtual environment. On the oth...

Pseudo-Haptic techniques, or visuo-haptic illusions, leverage user's visual dominance over haptics to alter the users' perception. As they create a discrepancy between virtual and physical interactions, these illusions are limited to a perceptual threshold. Many haptic properties have been studied using pseudo-haptic techniques, such as weight, sha...

Neural Style Transfer (NST) was originally proposed to use feature extraction capabilities of Neural Networks as a way to perform Style Transfer with images. Pre-trained image classification architectures were selected for feature extraction, leading to new images showing the same content as the original but with a different style. In robotics, Sty...

This paper evaluates the role and effectiveness of different types of haptic feedback in presenting relevant feedback information during needle insertion in soft tissues through a remotely operated robot. We carried out three experiments with human subjects to analyze the effect of grounded kinesthetic feedback, cutaneous vibrotactile feedback, and...

This paper presents and evaluates a set of mid-air ultrasound haptic strategies to provide 2-degree-of-freedom position and orientation guidance in Virtual Reality (VR). We devised four strategies for providing position guidance and two for providing orientation guidance. A human subject study evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed techniques...

We propose to study the combination of acoustically transparent tangible objects (ATTs) and ultrasound mid-air haptic (UMH) feedback to support haptic interactions with digital content. Both these haptic feedback methods have the advantage of leaving users unencumbered, and present uniquely complementary strengths and weaknesses. In this paper, we...

Teleoperating robotic manipulators can be complicated and cognitively demanding for the human operator. Despite these difficulties, teleoperated robotic systems are still popular in several industrial applications, e.g., remote handling of hazardous material. In this context, we present a novel haptic shared control method for minimising the manipu...

Haptic exoskeleton gloves are a widespread solution for providing force-feedback in Virtual Reality (VR), especially for 3D object manipulations. However, they are still lacking an important feature regarding in-hand haptic sensations: the palmar contact. In this paper, we present PalmEx, a novel approach which incorporates palmar force-feedback in...

Electrotactile feedback is a convenient tactile rendering method thanks to reduced form factor and power consumption. Yet, its usage in immersive virtual reality has been scarcely addressed. This paper explores how electrotactile feedback could be used to enhance contact information for mid-air interactions in virtual reality. We propose an electro...

The use of electrotactile feedback in Virtual Reality (VR) has shown promising results for providing tactile information and sensations. While progress has been made to provide custom electrotactile feedback for specific interaction tasks, it remains unclear which modulations and rendering algorithms are preferred in rich interaction scenarios. In...

Ultrasound mid-air haptic (UMH) devices are a novel tool for haptic feedback, capable of providing localized vibrotactile stimuli to users at a distance. UMH applications largely rely on generating tactile shape outlines on the users’ skin. Here, we investigate how to achieve sensations of continuity or gaps within such 2D curves by studying the pe...

Despite the wide availability of large motion databases, and recent advances in exploiting them to create tailored contents, artists still spend tremendous efforts in editing and adapting existing character animations to new contexts. This motion editing problem is a well-addressed research topic. Yet only a few approaches have considered the influ...

Ultrasound mid-air haptic (UMH) devices are promising for tactile feedback in virtual reality (VR), as they do not require users to be tethered to, hold, or wear any device. This approach is less cumbersome, easy to set up, can simplify tracking, and leaves the hands free for concurrent interactions. This chapter explores work conducted at CNRS-IRI...

While user's perception and performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial and time perception pertinent to the task's components and procedures. This paper examines the association bet...

Ultrasound mid-air haptic technology has advanced in many ways over the past decade and has found meaningful application in a plethora of use cases. As the technology matures further and progresses from lab to market, in this chapter, we take a step back and discuss three specific directions that we think could result in the greatest impact. Namely...

p>While user's perception and performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial and time perception pertinent to the task's components and procedures. This paper examines the association b...

p>While user's perception and performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial and time perception pertinent to the task's components and procedures. This paper examines the association b...

While user's perception & performance are predominantly examined independently in virtual reality, the Action-Specific Perception (ASP) theory postulates that the performance of an individual on a task modulates this individual's spatial & time perception pertinent to the task's components & procedures. This paper examines the association between p...

Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable du...

This opinion paper proposes the introduction of phygital features in twinning design for neuroergonomics in human-robot interaction.

Neural Style Transfer (NST) refers to a class of algorithms able to manipulate an element, most often images, to adopt the appearance or style of another one. Each element is defined as a combination of Content and Style: the Content can be conceptually defined as the “what” and the Style as the “how” of said element. In this context, we propose a...

Electrotactile feedback has been proven effective in improving mid-air interactions in Virtual Reality (VR) scenarios. However, the elicited sensation is often described as unnatural. We explore standard stimulation patterns or effects (FXs) found in the literature and how they can get coupled with common VR interactions. We propose 6 implementatio...

The sense of touch plays a strong role in the perception of the properties and characteristics of hollow objects. The action of shaking a hollow container to get an insight of its content is a natural and common interaction. In this paper, we present a multi-modal rendering approach for the simulation of virtual moving objects inside a hollow conta...

Informative and realistic haptic feedback significantly enhances virtual reality (VR) manipulation. In particular, vibrotactile feedback (VF) can deliver diverse haptic sensations while remaining relatively simple. This has made it a go-to solution for haptics within hand-held controllers and tangible props for VR. However, VF in hand-helds has sol...

We present a 2-degrees-of-freedom (2-DoF) haptic device, which can be either used as a grounded or a hand-held device. It is composed of two platforms moving with respect to each other, actuated by two servomotors housed in one of structures. The device implements a rigid coupling mechanism between the two platforms, based on a three-legged 3-4R co...

When talking about the Apparent Haptic Motion (AHM) illusion, temporal parameters are the most discussed for providing the smoothest illusion. Nonetheless, it is rare to see studies addressing the impact of changing these parameters for conveying information about the velocity of the elicited motion sensation. In our study, we investigate the discr...

p>Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable...

Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable du...

This paper presents a wearable electrotactile feedback system to enhance contact information for mid-air interactions with virtual objects. In particular, we propose the use of electrotactile feedback to render the interpenetration distance between the user’s finger and the virtual content is touched. Our approach consists of modulating the perceiv...

This paper presents a control-theoretic approach for trajectory optimization of mobile robots suitable for environmental monitoring. The method is based on the optimization of the Constructability Gramian in order to maximize the information collected while traversing a state trajectory. The maximization of the collected information is combined wit...

We present a decentralized connectivity-maintenance control framework for a heterogeneous human-robot team. The algorithm is able to manage a team composed of an arbitrary number of mobile robots (drones and ground robots in our case) and humans, for collaboratively achieving exploration and patrolling tasks. Differently from other works on the sub...

This article proposes a shared-control teleoperation architecture for robot manipulators transporting an object on a tray. Differently from many existing studies about remotely operated robots with firm grasping capabilities, we consider the case in which, in principle, the object can break its contact with the robot end-effector. The proposed shar...

div>Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remains an unresolved issue, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wear...

Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low portability/wearability of haptic devices remains an unresolved issue, severely limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable...

The size and shape of fingertips vary significantly across humans, making it challenging to design wearable fingertip interfaces suitable for everyone. Although deemed important, this issue has often been neglected. This paper presents an innovative approach for automatically adapting the hardware design of a wearable haptic interface for a given u...

This paper presents an adaptive impedance control architecture for robotic teleoperation of contact tasks featuring continuous interaction with the environment. We use Learning from Demonstration (LfD) as a framework to learn variable stiffness control policies. Then, the learnt state-varying stiffness is used to command the remote manipulator, so...

Teams of coordinated robots have been proven useful in several high-impact applications, including urban search and rescue (USAR) and disaster response. In this context, we present a decentralized haptic-enabled connectivity-maintenance control framework for heterogeneous human-robot teams. The proposed framework controls the coordinated motion of...

We present a haptic teleoperation system capable of steering flexible needles under ultrasound imaging toward a target. With respect to similar works, this approach enables intuitive control of the needle motion while providing the user with 3D navigation and needle tip cutting force using a combination of kinesthetic and vibrotactile haptic feedba...

This paper presents a wearable electrotactile feedback system to enable precise and accurate contact rendering with virtual objects for mid-air interactions. In particular, we propose the use of electrotactile feedback to render the interpenetration distance between the user's finger and the virtual content is touched. Our approach consists of modu...

This paper presents a wearable electrotactile feedback system to enable precise and accurate contact rendering with virtual objects for mid-air interactions. In particular, we propose the use of electrotactile feedback to render the interpenetration distance between the user's finger and the virtual content is touched. Our approach consists of modu...

Research on robotic manipulation of fragile, compliant objects, such as food items, is gaining traction due to its game-changing potential within the food production and retailing sectors, currently characterized by manually-intensive and highly repetitive tasks. Food products exhibit high levels of frailness, biological variation, and complex 3D s...

We combine tracking information from a tangible object instrumented with capacitive sensors and an optical tracking system, to improve contact rendering when interacting with tangibles in VR. A human-subject study shows that combining capacitive sensing with optical tracking significantly improves the visuohaptic synchronization and immersion of th...

Virtual reality (VR) is a valuable experimental tool for studying human movement, including the analysis of interactions during locomotion tasks for developing crowd simulation algorithms. However, these studies are generally limited to distant interactions in crowds, due to the difficulty of rendering realistic sensations of collisions in VR. In t...