In the last decade, several new haptic devices have been developed, contributing to the
definition of more realistic virtual environments. An overview of this topic requires a …

The term 'synergy'–from the Greek synergia–means 'working together'. The concept of
multiple elements working together towards a common goal has been extensively used in …

Somatosensory feedback of the hand is essential for object identification. Without
somatosensory feedback, individuals cannot reliably determine the size or compliance of an …

Assistive and rehabilitation devices are a promising and challenging field of recent robotics
research. Motivated by societal needs such as aging populations, such devices can support …

Besides providing information on elementary properties of objects, like texture, roughness,
and softness, the sense of touch is also important in building a representation of object …

Pseudo-Haptic techniques, or visuo-haptic illusions, leverage user's visual dominance over
haptics to alter the users' perception. As they create a discrepancy between virtual and …

Multi-sensory human–machine interfaces are currently challenged by the lack of effective,
comfortable and affordable actuation technologies for wearable tactile displays of softness in …

In engineering, the “softness” of an object, as measured by an indenter, manifests as two
measurable parameters:(i) indentation depth and (ii) contact area. For humans, softness is …

Restoring hand function in individuals with upper limb loss is a challenging task, made
difficult by the complexity of human hands from both a functional and sensory point of view …

Objective: Myoelectric hand prostheses have reached a considerable technological level
and gained an increasing attention in assistive robotics. However, their abandonment rate …