JANUS Research Group

Haptic Interfaces for Public Safety Challenge

• 2nd place: $10,000
• Total Prize Challenge Amount: $45,000

About the Team

Rodney Roeber, Ssuyu (Tim) Lu, Kishan Shetty, Kurt Anderson, Shan Rodier

JANUS is a large business dedicated to providing customers with lasting solutions to their most complex challenges. Founded in 1997 as a virtual training and engineering services company, today JANUS has staff and operations across the United States and overseas where they provide effective and affordable solutions to federal and commercial customers. Their core competencies include: Instructional System Design (ISD), Modeling & Simulation, AR and VR Simulations, Serious Games, Curriculum Development, Course Instruction and Facilitation, Distance Learning, and Cyber Operations and Training.

Dr. Rodney Roeber joined JANUS Research Group in 2013 as Senior Scientist and is involved in research and development projects that use embedded microcontrollers, sensors, and communications systems. His experience includes extensive development with ARM Cortex M and Cortex A devices, electronic schematic design and printed circuit board design. The projects include night vision and camera systems, wireless (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LoRa, 2G, 3G) Internet of Things connectivity, agriculture soil moisture monitoring systems, water quality testing devices and environmental sensor systems. He applied for and received a Federal Aviation Administration Part 333 exemption permitting JANUS to commercially operate a multicopter.

Ssuyu (Tim) Lu is a Lead Software Developer at Janus Research Group, Inc. with 18+ years software engineering experience. He has been a foundational member of the UVEE, Envision, and Javelin training framework projects and has been interested in using Virtual Reality for training for 5 years.

Dr. Kishan Shetty serves as Principal Software Engineer with 15 years of experience. He provided Unreal Engine software support for Haptic Development Teams and performed integration of haptic hardware for Phase 5 of the challenge.

Kurt Anderson serves as Project Manager for the Haptic Challenge effort and was able to fall back on his Electrical Engineering background to double as hardware engineering support for the Haptic Development Teams and just in time soldering for hardware components.

Shawn Rodier is Vice President of the Modeling Simulation and Training Business Unit and JANUS stakeholder in charge of the effort.

The Solution

Video coming soon!

As a haptic provider for the challenge, Janus Research Group provided Unreal Engine software integration support and supplied haptic development (HDTs) with their hardware implementation. Their microcontroller-based solution consists of a mounting platform such as glove, Microelectromechanical (MEMS) Inertial Measurement Units (IMU), Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM) motors and custom printed circuit connection. The IMUs synchronize physical hand orientation with virtual orientation and the ERMs provide haptic feedback. The hardware is light and is integrated into existing PPE and will not prevent a user from performing their normal hand motor functions.

Key Features

• Vibro-tactile motors located at fingertips for directional guidance and situational awareness
• User controls through gestures
• Contained entirely within the PPE glove
• Interfaced and controlled over Bluetooth from a mobile app 

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