Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: TouchBots for Surface Haptics

该项目将导致一类新的人机界面，为指尖提供触觉反馈。指尖是卓越的多模式传感器，能够检测压力和振动、局部变形(如盲文细胞)、硬度/柔软度、冷暖度和无数类型的纹理。在界面中利用这些感官功能是有充分理由的：让视力受损的人更容易接触到触摸屏，让汽车上更容易使用触摸屏，在增强和虚拟现实中提供触摸反馈，以及在社交、医疗和零售应用中支持远程触摸。大量具有重要商业意义的用例催生了快速增长的触摸反馈(“触觉”)技术市场，然而，现有的方法中没有一种方法只涉及指尖功能的一小部分。即将开发的新界面--TouchBots--将提供一套大大扩展的触觉反馈模式。TouchBot是放置在指尖和触摸屏或触摸板等触摸面之间的微型模块。它包括两个主要的子系统：一个沿着可编程路径引导手指，另一个提供沿该路径的物体的形状和纹理的感觉。总而言之，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打字界面、用于虚拟现实的逼真表面纹理，以及任何有触摸表面的完全可编程的盲文和触觉图形。这些互动有可能让视力受损的人能够接触到触摸屏设备。认识到将这项研究的成果商业化需要新一代技术创新者，将与研究生级别的创新课程建立密切的联系，导致具有影响力的个人处于有利地位，能够在不断增长的触觉行业提供领导。TouchBot的能力源于它与底层表面互动的方式。拟议的TouchBot设计包括：(A)动觉子系统，通过被动滚动但主动转向的车轮提供反馈；(B)皮肤模块，通过一系列微小的“PUCKS”提供反馈；(C)使用电粘附力为每个PUCKS提供选择制动机制。这种方法被称为“Cobotic”，已经针对宏观设备进行了彻底的开发，并将通过仔细整合方向盘驱动、车轮设计和意图感知来适应中观级别。触控机器人将非常紧凑，具有低功耗和高性能的运动制导系统。TouchBot提供局部形状和纹理的能力将由一组微小的“PUCK”提供，使用选择性破坏机制。这项研究将利用之前在表面触觉、爬壁机器人和数据存储读写头等领域的努力，实现一种高力、高带宽、可用于控制高密度触觉阵列的电胶设备。通过将这些技术结合到指尖大小的设备中，将有可能演示广泛的表面触觉交互，包括按钮、切换、凸起线条画、盲文字符、触觉图形和纹理。参与式设计方法将用于确定TouchBot在汽车和用户交互设计等领域的潜在用途。经验原型和快速迭代将被用来创造刺激，引起丰富的反馈。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.