PhD Position F/M Haptic stimulations for teleoperation in XR

PhD Position F/M Haptic stimulations for teleoperation in XR Download job offer in PDF format Contract type : Fixed-term contract Level of qualifications required : Graduate degree or equivalent Fonction : PhD Position About the research centre or Inria department The Inria Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique Centre is one of Inria's eight centres and has more than thirty research teams. The Inria Center is a major and recognized player in the field of digital sciences. It is at the heart of a rich R&D and innovation ecosystem: highly innovative PMEs, large industrial groups, competitiveness clusters, research and higher education players, laboratories of excellence, technological research institute, etc. Context The candidate will integrate the Seamless team at the at the Centre Inria at Rennes University/IRISA. The Seamless team adopts a multidisciplinary approach in virtual/augmented reality (XR), human perception, human-computer interaction, and human factors, prioritizing the user at the center of the XR revolution. Their work addresses three key challenges: enabling smooth transitions between realities by bridging gaps in perception and interaction for a continuous experience; fostering equal collaboration across realities, ensuring shared awareness and uniform interaction capabilities regardless of individual differences; and advancing implicit, precise evaluation of user experience. This PhD is part of the European Horizon Europe project OmenXR, which aims to develop a real-time, multisensory, and human-centered framework for hybrid collaboration in eXtended Reality (XR). To achieve this, OmenXR will first leverage state-of-the-art image-based rendering techniques to enable on-the-fly photorealistic visual fidelity using consumer-grade Mixed Reality (MR) hardware. Additionally, it will create a multisensory experience that anchors all collaborators in a sensory coherent environment. Finally, OmenXR will utilize real-time reconstruction and understanding to enable novel forms of hybrid collaboration, integrating remote users, teleoperated robots, and intelligent virtual agents. This PhD project will partially focus on those objectives by investigating haptic feedback for AR/VR collaboration. Assignment Augmented Reality (AR) has been extensively investigated as a tool for remote assistance across various application domains, such as industrial maintenance and home support. In this context, a user can tele-operate a robot in a remote environment, or collaborate with remote users to perform manipulation tasks. These tasks can have various levels of complexity, and to ensure optimal control of the manipulation, users need to feel the haptic interactions between the robot or users and the environment. Haptic interactions concern tactile information inferred from skin receptors (pressure, temperature, etc) and kinesthetic information from muscle receptors (McCloskey, 1978). In particular, the intensity and the direction of the different forces during contact with objects are important cues for manipulation. It can be simulated in AR environments using haptic interfaces, and most of the work focuses on rendering force information with grounded interfaces, fixed to the ground (e.g., (Massie, 1994); (Virtuose, 2001); (Grange, 2001), (Sato 2002), (Saint-Aubert, 2018)). While efficient, these interfaces have limited workspace and are not convenient to deploy for everyday use of AR systems. Wearable and portable versions have been investigated (e.g., (Nagai, 2015); (Barnaby, 2019); (Achberger, 2022); (Friedel, 2025); (Manson 2026)), but inherently result in cumbersome interfaces. Other work then focuses on the design of tactile interfaces (Prattichizzo,2010), stimulating the skin of the users with vibrations, thermal feedback, skin stretch, or small pressure (e.g., (Pacchierotti, 2017); (Fleck, 2025); (Marchal, 2025), (Weart, 2025)); or the design of gloves (Perret, 2018). These interfaces are generally wearable and have unlimited workspace; however, they lose their ability to render complete force feedback information, in particular the direction of forces. They also struggle to display force feedback to the whole hand, reducing their ability to simulate power-grasped interactions through tools. How to render force information while maintaining the wearability of the interfaces is still an open question. In this context, the objective of this PhD is to investigate how tactile feedback can render force information to efficiently support remote manipulation in AR. To this end, the PhD aims to explore the design and rendering of different types of tactile stimulation in AR controllers to display forces. In addition to technical contributions, specific focus will be devoted to evaluate the influence of haptic feedback on perception, and on the manipulation ability through user experiments. References Achberger, A. A. (2022). Stroe: An ungrounded string-based weight simulation device. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR), doi. Barnaby, G. (2019). Mantis: A scalable, lightweight and accessible architecture to build multiform force feedback systems. Proceedings of the 32nd Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, doi. Fleck, J. J. (2025). Wearable multi-sensory haptic devices. Nature Reviews Bioengineering, 288 302, doi. Grange, S. C. (2001). Overview of the delta haptic device. Eurohaptics, doi. Manson, J. L.-A. (2026). Anchor-based Haptics: Portable Interfaces Leveraging Real Surfaces to Display Grounded Forces for 3D Shape Simulation in VR. IEEE Virtual Reality, doi. Marchal, M. (2025). Virtual reality and haptics. Robotics Goes MOOC, doi. Massie, T. H. (1994). The phantom haptic interface: A device for probing virtual objects. ASME winter annual meeting, symposium on haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems, (pp. 295-300), doi. McCloskey, D. I. (1978). Kinesthetic sensibility. Physiological reviews, 763-820, doi. Nagai, K. T. (2015). Wearable 6-DoF wrist haptic device" SPIDAR-W". SIGGRAPH Asia 2015 Haptic Media And Contents Design, (pp. 1-2), doi. Pacchierotti, C. S. (2017). Wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand: taxonomy, review, and perspectives. IEEE transactions on haptics, 580-600, doi. Perret, J. &. (2018). Touching virtual reality: a review of haptic gloves. International Conference on New Actuators, (pp. 1-5), doi. Prattichizzo, D. P. (2010). Using a fingertip tactile device to substitute kinesthetic feedback in haptic interaction. EuroHaptics (pp. 125-130). Amsterdam: Springer, doi. Saint-Aubert, J. (2018). Cable driven haptic interface for co-localized desktop VR. IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS), 351-356, doi. Sato, M. (2002). Spidar and virtual reality. 5th biannual world automation congress, (pp. 17-23), doi. Virtuose. (2001). https://www.haption.com/product/virtuose6d. Haption. Weart. (2025). https://weart.it/touchdiver-pro-haptic-gloves/ Main activities The first three months of the PhD candidate will focus on a thorough analysis of the state of the art on haptic stimulations for teleoperation and XR simulations. The next twelve months will be focused on the design of tactile feedback embedded in VR controllers for simple 1D interactions, and exploration of the influence on user experience in AR scenarios. The next twelve months will be focused on more complex scenarios with 3D haptic feedback and interactions. The final six months will be focused on the writing of the manuscript and to the preparation of the defense, while finishing the initiated contributions. Furthermore, the PhD student is also expected to participate in the different activities that will be organized around the project, project meetings, and staff exchanges. Benefits package • Subsidized meals • Partial reimbursement of public transport costs • Leave: 7 weeks of annual leave + 10 extra days off due to RTT (statutory reduction in working hours) + possibility of exceptional leave (sick children, moving home, etc.) • Possibility of teleworking (after 6 months of employment) and flexible organization of working hours • Professional equipment available (videoconferencing, loan of computer equipment, etc.) • Social, cultural and sports events and activities • Access to vocational training Remuneration 2 300€ per month Apply for this position Share • Facebook • Linkedin • Twitter • Email General Information • Theme/Domain : Interaction and visualization Software Experimental platforms (BAP E) • Town/city : Rennes • Inria Center : Centre Inria de l'Université de Rennes • Starting date : 2026-10-01 • Duration of contract : 3 years • Deadline to apply : 2026-09-30 Warning : you must enter your e-mail address in order to save your application to Inria. Applications must be submitted online on the Inria website. Processing of applications sent from other channels is not guaranteed. Instruction to apply Please submit your CV, cover letter, and any recommandations online Defence Security : This position is likely to be situated in a restricted area (ZRR), as defined in Decree No. 2011-1425 relating to the protection of national scientific and technical potential (PPST).Authorisation to enter an area is granted by the director of the unit, following a favourable Ministerial decision, as defined in the decree of 3 July 2012 relating to the PPST. An unfavourable Ministerial decision in respect of a position situated in a ZRR would result in the cancellation of the appointment. Recruitment Policy : As part of its diversity policy, all Inria positions are accessible to people with disabilities. Contacts • Inria Team : SEAMLESS • PhD Supervisor : Argelaguet Sanz Fernando / ferran.argelaguet@inria.fr The keys to success We are seeking a motivated and creative individual with a Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Robotics, Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction, or a closely related field. The ideal candidate will have in-depth knowledge in mechatronics design and/or in VR. Knowledge about Human-Computer Interaction and in particular user experiments would be positively appreciated, while not mandatory. Due to the highly collaborative and international nature of the project, fluency in English (written and oral) is essential. We also value strong teamwork, adaptability, and a passion for innovation. About Inria Inria, the French national institute for research in digital science and technology, supports the French government in national research and innovation strategies in the digital field, acting as Digital Programs Agency. Inria leads over 300 research and innovation projects with its 3,500 scientists, engineers, and support staff, in partnership with universities and the digital ecosystem (businesses, entrepreneurs, and public stakeholders). Together, we explore strategic fields such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum computing, cloud technologies, digital transformation in healthcare, digital twins, and digital technologies for defence. We develop practical solutions such as software, tech startups, partnerships with national companies, and cutting-edge training programmes. Our goal is to drive scientific, technological, and industrial excellence to ensure France’s digital sovereignty.