The Effect of Global and Local Damping on the Perception of Hardness.

In tele-operation systems, damping is often injected to guarantee system stability during contact with hard objects. In this study, we used psychophysical experiments to assess the effect of adding damping on the user's perception of object hardness. In Experiments 1 and 2, combinations of stiffness and damping were tested to assess their effect on perceived hardness.