Tactile Feedback for a Force-Reflecting Haptic Display

This thesis describes the development of custom-built tactile feedback hardware and its integration with an available force-reflecting haptic interface. Design requirements were motivated strongly by the characteristics of the human tactile sense as well as the biomechanical characteristics of the human finger. The work explores the feasibility of various actuators, and selects a small solenoid actuator for application in a closed-loop force control tactile feedback system. An adaptive PI algorithm using continuously variable gain scheduling helps to compensate for nonlinearities in the solenoid actuator. The system demonstrates adequate closed-loop control, but the mass added to the force-reflecting haptic interface proves less than optimal. Design suggestions for future prototypes may reduce the mass added by the tactile feedback hardware by over 30. The work concludes with recommendations for psychophysical research that will increase understanding of human performance in tasks using haptic feedback devices.