This study investigated the perceptual characteristics of pulsive brakes presented by passive haptic interfaces. A passive-type haptic interface based on the damping brake of a DC motor was used to generate impact; this has merits of inherent safety and energy efficiency. This haptic interface expresses impacts by resisting the operator’s hand via the resistive force generated by a damping brake. In terms of impulse or momentum, maximum impact was achieved by continuously operating the damping brake after colliding with a virtual object. We found that instantaneous release of the brake immediately after collision increases the perceived impact. We computed several physical indices associated with the force against the hand as well as the hand velocity and investigated their relationships with the perceived magnitudes of the impacts. A high correlation was found between the absolute change ratio of the hand velocity and the perceived impact, which suggests that instantaneously releasing the brake is effective in terms of impact perception. Our findings indicate that the performance of passive haptic interfaces can extend physical limits, and the range of applications can be expanded by incorporating human perceptual characteristics.

这项研究调查了被动触觉界面所呈现的脉动制动器的感知特性。使用基于直流电动机的阻尼制动器的被动型触觉界面来产生冲击。这具有固有的安全性和能源效率。该触觉界面通过阻尼制动器产生的阻力来抵抗操作者的手，从而表达出冲击力。就冲量或动量而言，在与虚拟物体碰撞后通过连续操作阻尼制动器可实现最大冲击。我们发现，碰撞后立即释放制动器会增加感觉到的冲击力。我们计算了与手部作用力以及手部速度相关的几个物理指标，并研究了它们与撞击强度的关系。在手速度的绝对变化率和感觉到的冲击之间发现高度相关，这表明就冲击感觉而言，瞬时释放制动器是有效的。我们的发现表明，被动触觉界面的性能可以扩展物理限制，并且可以通过合并人类的感知特性来扩展应用范围。