CoVR: A Large-Scale Force-Feedback Robotic Interface for Non-Deterministic Scenarios in VR
This addresses the challenge of immersive physical interactions in VR for users, though it is incremental as it builds on existing robotic interfaces with enhanced force capabilities.
The authors tackled the problem of providing strong kinesthetic feedback in room-scale VR by developing CoVR, a robotic interface that delivers up to 100 N of force and supports user interactions like pushing, pulling, and object manipulation, with technical and user studies confirming its feasibility and usability.
We present CoVR, a novel robotic interface providing strong kinesthetic feedback (100 N) in a room-scale VR arena. It consists of a physical column mounted on a 2D Cartesian ceiling robot (XY displacements) with the capacity of (1) resisting to body-scaled users' actions such as pushing or leaning; (2) acting on the users by pulling or transporting them as well as (3) carrying multiple potentially heavy objects (up to 80kg) that users can freely manipulate or make interact with each other. We describe its implementation and define a trajectory generation algorithm based on a novel user intention model to support non-deterministic scenarios, where the users are free to interact with any virtual object of interest with no regards to the scenarios' progress. A technical evaluation and a user study demonstrate the feasibility and usability of CoVR, as well as the relevance of whole-body interactions involving strong forces, such as being pulled through or transported.