Research programme on human-machine interaction launched
The board of Technology Foundation STW has given the go-ahead for five new research programmes. FOM Institute Rijnhuizen will participate in the programme H-Haptics, about human-machine interaction. The programme will be led by Delft University of Technology and has been awarded 4.78 million euros from the Perspective budget, supplemented by a 1.22 million euros contribution from the partners. This programme budget will be divided between seven subprojects. Within H-Haptics, Rijnhuizen will carry out research at its Remote Handling Study Centre, which will focus on the remote maintenance of the new fusion reactor ITER. In addition to this H-Haptics will lead to applications for deep sea mining, space technology, and improved surgical robots.
Rijnhuizen's Remote Handling Study Centre is a copy of the maintenance workstations for the ITER nuclear fusion reactor which have remotely controlled robot arms. At Rijnhuizen the maintenance at ITER will be simulated in an immersive virtual reality environment. Users will receive visual and tactile information about the activity of the robot arms. This will ensure a more efficient and rapid maintenance of the fusion reactor. H-Haptics is being realised by 5 universities, 4 knowledge institutions and 15 companies/organisations.
Human-cantered design of haptic interfaces: H-Haptics
The aim of the new STW programme H-Haptics is to design haptic ('tactile' or force feedback) systems that not only warn the user if he does something wrong but actively guide him in realising remote tasks and inform him about these: shared control. This requires a radically different design of haptic systems. New generations of interfaces also need to be developed that are more attuned to the human approach than the current interfaces, which have a more mechanical basis. Possible application areas range from space, the deep sea, surgical robots and mechanical support in home care, through to the remotely controlled maintenance of parts of the nuclear fusion experiment ITER.
Five STW programmes
H-Haptics and the other 4 programmes awarded funding are part of the Perspective programme of Technology Foundation STW, which is funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation. These newly approved programmes involve a total of 20 research groups at Dutch universities, 24 knowledge institutions (mostly in the Netherlands) and 52 users of the expected knowledge (39 companies and 13 government bodies and other organisations). The majority of the users are also contributing to the programmes. A significant part of that contribution is the deployment of knowledge workers from the commercial sector (mostly high-tech MKB) who will collaborate with academic researchers at their laboratories.
Further information
Five STW programmes launched (only in Dutch)
Remote Handling at Rijnhuizen