Soft pneumatic fingertip actuator incorporating a dual air chamber to generate multi-mode simultaneous tactile feedback

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

A complete set of diverse haptic feedbacks is essential for a highly realistic and immersive virtual environment. In this sense, a multi-mode haptic interface that simultaneously generates multiple kinds of haptic signals is highly desirable. In this paper, we propose a new silicone-made pneumatically controlled fingertip actuator to render pressure and vibrotactile feedback concurrently to offer a realistic and effective haptic sensation. A new silicone-based stacked dual-layer air chamber was designed. The volume of the chambers is controlled by pneumatic valves with compressed air tanks. The top/upper air chamber renders vibration feedback, whereas the bottom/lower air chamber renders pressure feedback. The proposed silicone-made fingertip actuator is designed so that it can be easily worn at the fingertips. To demonstrate the potential of the system, a virtual environment for rendering three different types of haptic textures was implemented. Extensive performance evaluation and user studies were carried out to demonstrate the proposed actuator’s effectiveness compared to an actuator with single vibrotactile feedback.

Original languageEnglish
Article number175
JournalApplied Sciences (Switzerland)
Volume12
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was supported by the Preventive Safety Service Technology Development Program funded by the Korean Ministry of Interior and Safety under Grant 2019-MOIS34-001.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • Haptic rendering, Pneumatic haptic actuator, Simultaneous haptic feedback, Tactile feedback

ID: 388955549