Identification friend or foe application demonstrating effects of haptics and time delay

Abstract

Summary form only given. The demonstration is called "identification friend or foe (IFF)". The demonstration hardware consists of a computer (including a monitor) and a custom 3 DOF haptic robotic device although only 2 DOF are required for the demonstration. When the demonstration begins, the user is presented with a 2 DOF map of objects (denoted by green square boxes) randomly situated within a rectangular region of interest. The user moves a cursor on the screen by moving the tip of the robotic device. The task at hand is to position the cursor over each green square in an effort to identify each object as either a friend or foe. When the cursor resides within the boundaries of the box for 1 second of consecutive time, the object is identified as either a friend (denoted by a blue triangle) or a foe (denoted by a red diamond). Through the user interface, the user is able to add haptic effects and random noise to illustrate the value of haptics, the sensitivity of haptics to time delay and noise and the effectiveness of time delay compensation to provide improved performance.