Spatiotemporal Tactile Display with Tangential Force and Normal Skin Vibration Generated by Shaft End-Effectors

Abstract

While rubbing a material, both shear force and vibration spatiotemporally occur on the skin of our finger pad. To reproduce various kind of rubbing sensation, we developed a tactile display using shaft end-effectors to spatiotemporally drive the skin of finger pad. Each shaft was connected to a DC motor and to a voice coil. When the shaft is rotated by a DC motor, the friction of the shaft tangentially move the skin. In addition, the voice coil was used to vibrate the shaft perpendicularly to the skin. There are six shafts in our present study. We conducted preliminary test to reproduce rubbing sensation of three sample materials, hemp, leather and Teflon. In the demo, participants can experience our display reproducing these material sensation. They also can adjust the amplitudes and the frequencies of tangential and normal skin vibration by comparing to the sensation of the real materials.