Repository logo

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne

Infoscience

  • English
  • French
Log In
  1. Home
  2. Academic and Research Output
  3. Journal articles
  4. A flexible multimodal tactile display for delivering shape and material information
 
research article

A flexible multimodal tactile display for delivering shape and material information

Gallo, Simon
•
Son, Choonghyun
•
Lee, Hyunjoo Jenny
Show more
2015
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

The growing complexity of telemanipulation tasks calls for increased realism and intuitiveness of the interaction between the user and the master control. Humans perceive multiple haptic features of an object such as its stiffness, temperature, and shape, and rely on this multimodal information to achieve dexterous manipulation. However, to date, remote manipulators rarely provide haptic information to the operator. Moreover, current multimodal displays are often too rigid and bulky to be integrated into the manipulator. Thus, to improve the quality of teleoperation, there is a high demand for flexible devices that are capable of matching the skin's curvature while delivering multimodal haptic information to the operator. In this paper, we present a flexible tactile display delivering tactile and thermal stimuli to the user's skin. We propose a hybrid electromagnetic-pneumatic actuation to operate a 2 x 2 array of tactile cells. Each cell provides a repetitive stimulation with a force and an indentation that are above the human perception threshold for the finger, palm, and forearm. In addition, the temperature of the display's surface is controlled using a Peltier element attached to an air-cooled heatsink. By providing a reproducible cooling gradient, our display simulates common materials encountered in the daily environment. User study results show that (1) the tactile stimulation is perceived well and (2) the identification rates of objects simulated with the display were comparable to those obtained with real objects. Unlike previous devices, the thermal stimulation is delivered while the display is in constant contact with the user's skin, a necessary requirement for teleoperation. These results demonstrate the potential of our device as a promising tactile display for providing haptic feedback in teleoperation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  • Details
  • Metrics
Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.Sna.2015.10.048
Web of Science ID

WOS:000367483500021

Author(s)
Gallo, Simon
Son, Choonghyun
Lee, Hyunjoo Jenny
Bleuler, Hannes  
Cho, Il-Joo
Date Issued

2015

Publisher

Elsevier

Published in
Sensors and Actuators A: Physical
Volume

236

Start page

180

End page

189

Subjects

Haptics

•

Wearable

•

Multimodal

•

Flexible

•

Tactile display

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LSRO  
Available on Infoscience
February 16, 2016
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/123970
Logo EPFL, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
  • Contact
  • infoscience@epfl.ch

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Follow us on LinkedIn
  • Follow us on X
  • Follow us on Youtube
AccessibilityLegal noticePrivacy policyCookie settingsEnd User AgreementGet helpFeedback

Infoscience is a service managed and provided by the Library and IT Services of EPFL. © EPFL, tous droits réservés