A Design Specifications Template for Wearable Haptic Interfaces: A Case Study for Robotic Gripper Applications

Abstract

Wearable haptic interfaces are increasingly important for enhancing human robot collaboration, particularly in decision critical tasks that require intuitive and reliable interaction. Despite advances in wearable systems, existing designs often lack a structured framework that systematically integrates sensing, actuation, control, and user-centered considerations, limiting consistency, scalability, and performance across robotic applications. This paper presents a design specifications template for wearable haptic interfaces, providing a structured approach to guide designers in addressing key parameters, including user functional needs, ergonomic requirements, and technical design data. A focused review of related technologies covering exoskeletons and wearable haptic devices, sensing technologies for touch, and recent robotic grippers was conducted to inform the template and identify gaps in current design practices. The template was validated using two complementary approaches. Theoretical validation involved mapping two existing wearable haptic systems to the template, revealing that coverage of user characteristics and functional requirements ranged from 25% to 37.5%, highlighting the need for more systematic consideration of human factors. Practical validation was performed by designing, fabricating, and evaluating a three-finger wearable haptic device integrated with a robotic gripper, demonstrating improved coverage of user-centered and technical parameters and confirming the template's practical applicability. Overall, the proposed framework provides a systematic, application-driven methodology for developing reliable and scalable wearable haptic interfaces. By enabling designers to integrate human factors, device functionality, and technical specifications at the pre-design stage, it supports improved human-robot collaboration and sets a foundation for future standardized and adaptable haptic systems in teleoperation, rehabilitation, and robotic manipulation tasks.