The N2D Haptic Glove: A Multi-Finger Glove for 2D Directional Force Feedback for Contact Rich Manipulation

arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.14083, 2026

Yao-Ting Huang, Jake Honma, Omar Hernandez, Logan Li, Kaitlin Calimbahin, Bryce Hackel, Michael C Yip

ArXiv PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2606.14083
Project Website: https://ucsdarclab.github.io/n2d-glove/
Abstract: Humans rely on directional fingertip forces to probe and regulate contact during manipulation, yet most wearable haptic gloves render only vibration or single-axis force, leaving force direction ambiguous. Without directional cues, users must infer contact force from vision alone, often leading to over-pressing, inconsistent control, and reduced precision in robotic teleoperation. We present the N2D Haptic Glove, a multi-finger wearable device that renders planar flexion-extension fingertip forces using capstan-drive transmissions for high-transparency force feedback. Through benchtop validations and a user study involving haptic teleoperation of a robotic arm and hand, we demonstrate that compared to visual-only and single-axis haptic baselines, planar fingertip feedback significantly reduces contact force error during precise manipulation, improves trial-to-trial consistency, and enhances overall user experience in axial probing tasks. These findings establish the N2D Haptic Glove and directional finger-based haptics devices as a promising modality for contact-rich teleoperation, immersive virtual reality simulations, and robot learning from demonstrations. N2D Haptic Glove’s hardware and software system will be fully open-sourced at href{https://ucsdarclab.github.io/n2d-glove/}{this https URL

Huang et al. (2026) The N2D Haptic Glove: A Multi-Finger Glove for 2D Directional Force Feedback for Contact Rich Manipulation, arXiv preprint arXiv:2606.14083.