Haptic Surface Display based on Miniature Dielectric Fluid Transducers

• Published in: IEEE robotics and automation letters Vol. 5; no. 3; pp. 4021 - 4027
• Main Authors: Han, Amy Kyungwon, Ji, Sheng, Wang, Dangxiao, Cutkosky, Mark R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.07.2020; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Actuators; Electrodes; Force; Haptic interfaces; haptics and haptic interfaces; Human performance; Membranes; Oils; Power consumption; Power management; Prototypes; soft robot applications; soft robot materials and design; Soft sensors and actuators; Stress; Surface layers; Transducers
• ISSN: 2377-3766; 2377-3766
• DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.2985624

We present a lightweight, low power, and compliant miniature dielectric fluid transducer intended for haptic surface display. The actuator has a large strain and fast response without an external compressor. It consists of a thin oil-filled pouch with a 1.5 mm diameter opening covered with a silicone membrane. The application of voltage causes the pouch to squeeze the oil and form a bump by stretching the silicone membrane. The actuator produces 1.45 mm bump height at 3 kV and 13 mN at 3.5 kV using <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\approx</tex-math></inline-formula><inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\text{10}\,\mu</tex-math></inline-formula>l of oil. The power consumption is <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">< </tex-math></inline-formula>3 mW. Though the largest bump height has a bandwidth near 5 Hz, the device achieves perceivable vibration at 200 Hz with a bump height of 200 <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu</tex-math></inline-formula>m. The actuators can be packed closely and controlled individually to create dynamic texture displays, suitable for active surface exploration with the fingertips. The simulation results show the width of the actuator can be reduced without affecting the performance. Tests with human subjects show that users differentiated simple bump patterns with a 98.8% success rate.