Abstract:
Skin deformation haptic devices worn on the finger pad provide realistic touch feedback during interactions with virtual objects. Two primary challenges in creating such devices are: (1) making a multi-degree-of-freedom device that is small and lightweight so it does not encumber the wearer and (2) providing accurate control of forces displayed to the finger pad. This work presents a 4-degree-of-freedom (DoF) finger pad haptic device, called Fourigami, that addresses these challenges. We address the first challenge using origami manufacturing methods and pneumatic actuation to fabricate a 25g prototype that displays normal, shear, and twist and can be easily worn on the finger pad. We address the second challenge using a low-profile, 6-DoF, force/torque sensor to control forces displayed to the finger. Fourigami has a bandwidth ranging from 2-4 Hz depending on direction, and when acting on a human finger, it exerts forces ranging from ± 1.0 N in shear, 4.2 N in normal, and ± 4.2 N ⋅ mm of twist. Finally, we demonstrate the device’s efficacy when rendering haptic feedback to a user tracking a sinusoidal trajectory and a trajectory representing interactions with a virtual object.
Contributions
As a co-author on this project, I contributed to the editing and refinement of the manuscript. Additionally, I developed the dataset of virtual fingerpad manipulation force data (originally generated in my previous work (Palmer et al, 2022 )). This dataset was instrumental in the Amplitude Spectrum Density (ASD) analysis, which was used to characterize the bandwidth performance of the Fourigami device.
Skills
Experiment Design, Scientific Writing, Data Analysis, Data Visualization, Virtual Reality, CHAI3D, 3D Printing, MATLAB
