The human sense of touch is an indispensable tool in allowing us to manipulate and interact in our every-day world. This intuitive form of interaction, however, is often absent when working in remote or virtual environments. Haptic systems have demonstrated the capability of re-introducing this lost ability into computer/user interfaces. These force-feedback systems, by simulating the forces caused by the virtual environment, augment the amount of information that can be presented to the user by visual means alone, as well as increase the sense of immersion experienced by the user.

Our research has focused on the development of algorithms and control structures to allow the quick and robust tactile display of virtual environments derived from common graphical descriptions. The development of this technology has the potential for enormous benefits in many areas of human activity including medicine, industrial design, aeronautics, robotics, and education.

For more information about research linked with haptics, check Simulation and SoftTissues page

"Real-Time Adaptive Control for Haptic Manipulation with Active Observers"
 Cortesao, R., Park, J., Khatib, O.
Proc. of IEEE/RSJ Int. Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems -- IROS2003, Las Vegas, Oct. 27-31, 2003 Page(s):2938 - 2943


"Interactive rendering of deformable objects based on a filling sphere modeling approach"
 Conti, F., Khatib, O., Baur, C.
Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Taipei, 14-19 Sept. 2003 Page(s):3716 - 3721 vol.3


"Haptic Display for Human Interaction with Virtual Dynamic Environments"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Journal of Robotics Systems, special issue on Biorobotics and Humanoid Robotics, vol. 18, issue 12, pp. 769-783, December 2001.

"Simulation with Contact for Haptic Interaction"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Touch in Virtual Environments, McLaughlin, M., Hespanha, J.P. and Sukhatme, G.S., Eds., Prentice-Hall, 2001 pp. 32-46.

"A Framework for Multi-Contact Multi-Body Dynamic Simulation and Haptic Display"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Proc. of IEEE/RSJ Int. Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems -- IROS2000, Takamatsu, Japan, October 2000, pp. 1322-1327.


"A Framework for Multi-Contact Multi-Body Dynamic Simulation and Haptic Display"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Proc. ARK 7, International Symposium on Advances in Robot Kinematics, Piran, Slovenia, June 2000, pp. 175-186.

"Haptics for Virtual Prototyping"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Proc. 9th IFToMM World Congress on the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms,, Oulu, Finland, June 1999. vol. 3, pp. 924-929.

"Collision/Contact Models for Dynamic Simulation and Haptic Interaction"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Proc. ISRR'99, the Ninth International Symposium of Robotics Research, Snowbird, Utah, 1999 Springer, pp. 185-194.

"Haptics for Virtual Prototyping"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Recent Advances in Mechatronics, O. Kaynak, S. Tosunoglu, M. Ang, Jr, Eds., Springer 1999, pp. 294-303.

"Dynamic Models for Haptic Rendering Systems"
 Diego Ruspini, Oussama Khatib
Advances in Robot Kinematics: ARK'98, June 1998, Strobl/Salzburg, Austria, pp523-532


"Haptics for Multi-Scale Virtual Prototyping"
 Ruspini, D, Khatib, O.
Proc. 2nd Int. Workshop on Micro Robotic and Systems, Beijing, China, 1998, pp. 172-179.

"Adding Motion to Constraint Based Haptic Rendering Systems: Issues & Solutions"
 Ruspini, Diego
Second PHANToM User's Group Workshop, October 19-22, 1997, Dedham, MA. link PUG'97

"Haptic Interaction in Virtual Environments"
 Diego C. Ruspini, Krasimir Kolarov, Oussama Khatib
IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems: IROS'97, September 1997, Genoble, France


"Haptic Interaction in Virtual Environments"
 Ruspini, D., Kolarov, K., Khatib, O.
Proc. IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS'97, Grenoble, France Sep 1997., pp. 128--133.


"The Haptic Display of Complex Graphical Environments"
 Ruspini, Diego, Krasimir Kolarov, Oussama Khatib
SIGGRAPH 97 Proceedings, (August 1997), pp. 345-352

"The Haptic Display of Complex Graphical Environments"
 Ruspini, D., Kolarov, K., Khatib, O.
Proceedings SIGGRAPH 97, August 1997, pp. 345-352.


"Graphical and Haptic Manipulation of 3D Objects"
 Ruspini, Diego, Krasimir Kolarov
First PHANToM User's Group Workshop, September 27-30, 1996, Dedham, MA. link PUG'96

Last update: 11 - 2001 by F.Conti