MetamorphX: An Ungrounded 3-DoF Moment Display that Changes its Physical Properties through Rotational Impedance Control

Abstract

Humans can estimate the properties of wielded objects (e.g., inertia and viscosity) using the force applied to the hand. We focused on this mechanism and aimed to represent the properties of wielded objects by dynamically changing the force applied to the hand. We propose MetamorphX, which uses control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) to generate ungrounded, 3-degrees of freedom moment feedback. The high-response moments obtained from CMGs allow the inertia and viscosity of motion to be set to the desired values via impedance control. A technical evaluation indicated that our device can generate a moment with a 60-ms delay. The inertia and viscosity of motion were varied by $0.01\,\mathrm{kg\,m^2}$ and $0.1\,\mathrm{N\,s}$, respectively. Additionally, we demonstrated that our device can dynamically change the inertia and viscosity of motion through virtual reality applications.