The electrical muscle stimulator (EMS) based human machine interface (HMI) free to mechanical constraint and muscle fatigue problems are proposed for force feedback in a virtual reality. The device was designed to provide force feedback up to 4.8 N and 2.6 N each to the thumb and forefingers. The main objective of the HMI is to make unnecessary mechanical structures to attach on the hand or fingers. It employs custom EMSs and an interface arranged in the forearm. In this work, major muscle groups such as extensor pollicis brevis (EPB), extensor indicis proprius (EIP), flexor pollicis longus (FPL) and flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) are selected for efficient force feedback and controlled individually. For this, a human muscular-skeletal analysis was performed and verified. The validity of the proposed multi-channel EMS based HMI was evaluated thorough various experiments with ten human subjects, interacting with a virtual environment.

• 김효민(School of Robotics, KwangWoon University) | Hyo-Min Kim
• 권재성(School of Robotics, KwangWoon University) | Jae-Sung Kwon
• 오용환(Korea Institute of Science and Technology) | Yong-Hwan Oh
• 양우성(School of Robotics, KwangWoon University) | Woo-Sung Yang Corresponding author