This workshop marks the completion of two ONR projects on
"Tactile Sensing and Exploration for Man and Machine Systems" and
"Human and Robot Hands: Mechanics, Sensorimotor Functions and Cognition."
The objectives of the workshop are as follows:
- to bring leading researchers together, from biological and robotic
perspectives, for a collective look at our understanding of haptic
perception and performance and their applications to robotics,
telemanipulation and human/computer interaction.
- to achieve a shared understanding of the mechanisms of sensing, the
parameters involved, the available explicatory models, and the
confidence that we have in those models.
- to examine the current state of the art in applying what we know
about human haptics to robotics, telemanipulation and human/computer
interaction.
- to generate recommendations and a "road map" for future research and
development, including a discussion of the major unsolved scientific
problems, exciting opportunities, and technological challenges.
- to archive the views and consensus of the group in an edited volume,
composed of chapters and sections contributed by the workshop
participants.The ambition is that this volume will become a definitive
reference on the state of the art and science in biological and machine
haptics at the close of the twentieth century.