GIST Develops Next-Generation Haptic Feedback System 'TelePulse'

by Min Chanki

Published 07 May.2025 15:35(KST)

Updated 26 Jul.2025 21:39(KST)

The TelePulse development team is receiving the Best Paper Award certificate at the CHI 2025 conference venue. Photo by GIST

A new type of haptic system has been developed that transmits the physical forces experienced by a robot to a human arm in real time.

On May 7, the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) announced that a research team led by Professor Kim Seungjun from the Department of AI Convergence, in collaboration with a team from MIT in the United States, has developed "TelePulse," a next-generation haptic feedback system that physically connects remote robots and humans.

This system delivers the exact physical forces encountered by a remote robotic arm to the user's arm when operated in a VR environment. To achieve this, it combines Electrical Muscle Stimulation (EMS) technology with Biomechanical Simulation.

By enabling users to perceive subtle differences in force when pressing or gripping objects in real time, the system provides vivid haptic feedback at the level of actual muscle contraction, going beyond simple vibrations or surface stimulation.

TelePulse remote control interface. Provided by GIST

While conventional EMS-based haptic systems typically stimulate muscles in proportion to a predetermined intensity, TelePulse analyzes the user's physical conditions, posture, and joint positions in real time. It then precisely calculates which muscles to stimulate and by how much, providing optimized feedback.

To accomplish this, the research team adopted "Open Sim," a biomechanical simulation tool used in physical therapy and rehabilitation research, enabling real-time calculation of personalized joint torque and adjustment of stimulation intensity. This allowed them to achieve a delicate and realistic haptic experience.

To verify its practicality, the research team applied TelePulse to experiments simulating remote industrial tasks such as drilling and sanding in a virtual industrial environment. As a result, participants using TelePulse showed significant improvements in force control accuracy and task consistency.

In a survey conducted after the experiment, participants reported that TelePulse provided a strong sense of immersion, describing it as "sharing sensations with the robot," which went beyond simple mechanical vibration stimulation. In fact, the presence scale scores improved by an average of more than 15%.

Unlike complex mechanical haptic devices, TelePulse is designed to be lightweight and easy to wear, offering high portability and usability. Based on this, it is expected to be widely applicable not only for remote robot operation, but also in various high-difficulty remote work environments such as remote surgery, disaster rescue, and space exploration.

This research, which achieved technological advancement in the real-time precise control of electrical stimulation technology, is attracting attention as a new interface model that can simultaneously enhance both immersion and precision in human-robot interaction.

Professor Kim Seungjun stated, "TelePulse is a technology that transmits the physical stimuli experienced by a robot to the human body in real time, opening an era where humans and robots can 'share sensations' beyond simple mechanical manipulation. In the future, it will be usefully applied in various fields such as remote collaboration, precision work, training, and rehabilitation."