Welcome to the Laboratory for Human and Machine Haptics, less formally known as the Touch Lab, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Touch Lab was founded by Dr. Mandayam A. Srinivasan in 1990. The goals of research conducted in the "Touch Lab" are to understand human haptics, develop machine haptics, and enhance human-machine interactions in virtual reality and teleoperator systems. The image below shows the relationship between the different areas of Touch Lab research. A human senses and controls the position of the finger tip, while a robot exerts forces to simulate contact with a virtual object. Both systems have sensors (nerves, encoders), processors (brain, computer), and actuators (muscles, motors).