Efficient Haptic Rendering of Regolith

Driven by the need for physically accurate and haptically convincing models of lunar and planetary regolith for model-mediated teleoperation in space, we present an approach to modelling regolith in an efficient yet realistic way. Model parameters are derived from physical characteristics of the regolith, to render regoliths with different density profiles, cohesion, internal friction and in different gravitational fields. Users could distinguish between changes in parameters– specifically friction and gravity field–and also gave qualitative feedback relevant to modelling regolith. We discuss the challenges in haptically rendering soils and the next steps.