This article exploits a bio-inspired sensor technology named artificial electric-sense to emulate underwater pre-touch. The sensor is considered as an electric finger controlled remotely by an operator to follow the boundaries of objects. Using electric measurements only, the approach feeds back pre-touch forces and torques to the operator through an haptic interface. These forces and torques are generated by a set of virtual electric charges and dipoles arranged on the probe and reacting in the electric field reflected by the objects. This model of emulated forces is passive and guarantees the stability of a position–position haptic feedback loop. The whole approach is assessed through a set of experiments carried out on a Cartesian slave robot coupled to an haptic interface. The obtained results show the feasibility of the concept and its robustness to different configurations of objects. Such an electro-haptic feedback opens new perspectives in both electric field sensing and underwater robotics.

中文翻译：

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基于人工电感的水下预触

本文利用一种名为人工电感的仿生传感器技术来模拟水下预触摸。传感器被认为是由操作员远程控制以跟踪物体边界的电子手指。该方法仅使用电测量，通过触觉界面将触摸前的力和扭矩反馈给操作员。这些力和扭矩是由一组布置在探头上的虚拟电荷和偶极子产生的，它们在物体反射的电场中发生反应。这种模拟力模型是被动的，可以保证位置-位置触觉反馈回路的稳定性。整个方法是通过在与触觉接口耦合的笛卡尔从属机器人上进行的一组实验来评估的。获得的结果表明了该概念的可行性及其对不同对象配置的鲁棒性。这种电触觉反馈为电场传感和水下机器人技术开辟了新的前景。