A Pneumatic Bending Actuator for the Force Feedback Haptic Glove: Fabrication, Assembly, and Evaluation

In all virtual reality interactions, the lack of haptic feedback has always been one of the most significant issues. Devices that can provide such feedback, the haptic gloves, are the most desperately demanded and the most complex to develop nowadays. The Reality Labs from Meta (former Facebook) has a very different approach. The actuators driven by the air source are located at the palmar aspect of the human hand. They can undergo deformations repeatedly according to the objects in the virtual environment to provide resistance to different actions. The haptic glove utilizing Pneumatic bending actuators are light, impact, and flexible. It conforms better with human fingers while providing no unwanted constraint force to the phalanges. Unlike commonly used electromagnetic actuators, the PneuNets ones generate no heat even during long-time sessions. It requires a smaller workspace and costs less in production, though it relies on air pumps that cannot be made wireless.