Providing Rich Haptic Feedback in Teleoperation

Determine effective mechanisms to provide humans with rich haptic feedback during teleoperation of robotic manipulation systems to enable efficient and precise dexterous task demonstrations.

Background

Teleoperation is a common approach for collecting robot manipulation data, but most systems either lack haptic feedback or provide only limited cues (e.g., vibration or fingertip-only normal forces), which makes precise, contact-rich tasks slow and difficult for operators.

The paper proposes perioperation via DEXOP to address these limitations by giving the human operator proprioceptive force feedback through mechanical linkages while recording rich tactile and visual data. However, the broader challenge of delivering rich haptic feedback directly within teleoperation remains unresolved, motivating this explicit open question.

References

More critically, providing humans with rich haptic feedback [23, 24] during teleoperation remains an open question.

— DEXOP: A Device for Robotic Transfer of Dexterous Human Manipulation  (2509.04441 - Fang et al., 4 Sep 2025) in Section 1 (Introduction)

This indicates that either the divers felt external disturbances as robotic feedback and could not differentiate between robotic directed force-feedback and subtle environmental factors, or the robot tightly couples to the physical sensing capabilities of the human, regardless of the external disturbances which act along different force directions. Without additional testing, we cannot conclusively prove either hypothesis.

— Towards Physical Underwater Robotic Assistance for Scuba Diver Movement in Confined Spaces  (2610.01906 - Kutzke et al., 1 Oct 2026) in Section “Open-water Threshold Sensitivity Testing”