Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: TouchBots for Surface Haptics

这个项目将导致一种新的人机界面，为指尖提供触觉反馈。指尖是非凡的多模态传感器，能够检测压力和振动，局部变形，如盲文细胞，硬度/柔软度，温暖/凉爽，以及无尽的纹理类型。有充分的理由在界面中开发这些感官功能：使视力受损的人更容易使用触摸屏，使汽车上的触摸界面更容易使用，在增强现实和虚拟现实中提供触摸反馈，并在社交、医疗和零售应用中支持远程触摸。大量商业上重要的用例导致了触摸反馈（“触觉”）技术市场的快速增长，但现有的方法都只涉及到指尖能力的一小部分。即将开发的新界面TouchBots将提供一套极大扩展的触觉反馈模式。TouchBot是一种微型模块，放置在指尖和触摸表面（如触摸屏或触控板）之间。它包括两个主要子系统：一个引导手指沿着可编程的路径，另一个提供沿着该路径的物体的形状和纹理感。总之，这些子系统将使TouchBots能够提供许多新的触觉交互，例如没有键盘的触摸输入界面，虚拟现实的逼真表面纹理，以及完全可编程的盲文和触觉图形，任何地方都有触摸表面。这些相互作用有可能使视力受损的人也能使用触摸屏设备。认识到将这项研究成果商业化需要新一代的技术创新者，因此将与研究生水平的创新课程建立密切联系，从而培养出具有影响力的个人，他们将在不断发展的触觉行业中发挥领导作用。TouchBot的功能源于它与底层表面交互的方式。提议的TouchBot设计包括：(a)通过被动滚动（但主动操纵）车轮提供反馈的动觉子系统；(b)通过一组微小“冰球”提供反馈的皮肤模块；(c)选择制动机构，为每个这些冰球使用电粘合。这种方法，被称为“cobotic”，已经为宏观尺度的设备进行了彻底的开发，并将通过仔细整合转向驱动、车轮设计和意图传感，在这里适应于中观尺度。触控机器人将非常紧凑，具有低功耗和高性能的运动指导系统。TouchBot提供局部形状和纹理的能力将由一组使用选择性断裂机制的小“冰球”提供。这项研究将利用先前在表面触觉、爬墙机器人和数据存储读写头等不同领域的努力，实现一种高强度、高带宽的电粘合装置，可用于控制高密度触觉阵列。通过将这些技术整合到指尖级设备中，将有可能展示广泛的表面触觉交互，包括按钮，切换，凸起线条绘图，盲文字符，触觉图形和纹理。参与式设计方法将用于识别TouchBot在汽车和用户交互设计等领域的潜在用途。体验原型和快速迭代将用于创造刺激，唤起丰富的反馈。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will lead to a new class of human-machine interfaces that provide tactile feedback to fingertips. Fingertips are remarkable multimodal sensors capable of detecting pressure and vibration, local deformation such as braille cells, hardness/softness, warmth/coolness, and endless types of textures. There are strong reasons to exploit these sensory capabilities in interfaces: making touch screens more accessible for the vision impaired, making it easier to use touch interfaces in automobiles, providing touch feedback in augmented and virtual reality, and supporting remote touch in social, medical and retail applications. The wealth of commercially important use cases has led to a fast-growing market for touch feedback (“haptic”) technologies, yet none of the existing approaches engages more than a small fraction of the fingertips’ capabilities. The new interfaces to be developed – TouchBots – will provide a greatly expanded suite of haptic feedback modalities. A TouchBot is a miniaturized module that is placed between a fingertip and a touch surface, such as a touchscreen or trackpad. It includes two main subsystems: one that guides the finger along a programmable path, and another that provides a sense of the shape and texture of objects along that path. Together, these subsystems will enable TouchBots to offer many new haptic interactions such as touch-typing interfaces without keyboards, realistic surface textures for virtual reality, and fully programmable braille and tactile graphics anywhere there is a touch surface. These interactions have the potential to make touch screen devices accessible to the vision impaired. Recognizing that a new generation of technological innovators will be needed to commercialize the fruits of this research, close ties will be forged to graduate-level curricula in innovation, leading to impact-minded individuals who are well-positioned to provide leadership in the growing haptics industry.The capabilities of a TouchBot stem from the manner in which it interacts with the underlying surface. The proposed TouchBot design includes: (a) kinesthetic subsystem that provides feedback via passively rolling, but actively steered, wheels; (b) a cutaneous module that provides feedback via an array of tiny "pucks"; (c) selective brake mechanism for each of these pucks using electroadhesion. This approach, known as “cobotic,” has been thoroughly developed for macro-scale devices, and will be adapted here to the meso-scale by careful integration of steering actuation, wheel design, and intent sensing. Touch-bot will be extremely compact, with a low-power, and high-performance system for motion guidance. The ability of the TouchBot to provide local shape and texture will be provided by an array of tiny “pucks,” using the selective breaking mechanism. This research will leverage prior efforts in areas as diverse as surface haptics, wall-climbing robots and data storage read-write heads to realize an electro-adhesive device that is high-force and high-bandwidth and that can be used to control a high-density tactile array. By bringing these technologies together into fingertip-scale devices, it will be possible to demonstrate a wide range of surface haptic interactions including buttons, toggles, raised line drawings, braille characters, tactile graphics, and textures. Participatory design methods will be used to identify potential uses of TouchBot in the areas such as automotive and user interaction design. Experience prototype and rapid iteration will be used to create stimuli that evoke rich feedback.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.