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Collaborative Research: HCC: Medium: TouchBots for Surface Haptics

合作研究：HCC：媒介：用于表面触觉的 TouchBot

基本信息

批准号：
2106191
负责人：
James Colgate
金额：
$ 79.99万
依托单位：
Northwestern University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2021-10-01 至 2024-09-30
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2106191&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Collaborative Research HCC Medium TouchBots

项目摘要

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.

该项目将导致一类新的人机界面，提供触觉反馈的指尖。指尖是卓越的多模态传感器，能够检测压力和振动、局部变形（如盲文单元）、硬度/柔软度、温暖/凉爽度以及无尽类型的纹理。有充分的理由在界面中利用这些感官功能：使触摸屏更容易为视力受损者所用，使触摸界面更容易在汽车中使用，在增强现实和虚拟现实中提供触摸反馈，并支持社交，医疗和零售应用中的远程触摸。丰富的商业重要用例已经导致触摸反馈（“触觉”）技术的快速增长市场，但现有的方法都没有超过指尖功能的一小部分。即将开发的新界面--触摸机器人--将提供一套大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。它包括两个主要的子系统：一个是引导手指沿着可编程的路径，另一个是提供物体沿着该路径的形状和纹理的感觉。这些子系统一起将使触摸机器人提供许多新的触觉交互，例如没有键盘的触摸打字界面，虚拟现实的真实表面纹理，以及任何有触摸表面的完全可编程的盲文和触觉图形。这些交互有可能使视力受损者能够使用触摸屏设备。认识到将需要新一代的技术创新者来将这项研究成果商业化，将与研究生水平的创新课程建立密切联系，从而培养具有影响力的个人，他们能够在不断发展的触觉行业中发挥领导作用。TouchBot的能力源于它与底层表面交互的方式。所提出的触摸机器人设计包括：（a）动觉子系统，其通过被动滚动但主动转向的轮子提供反馈;（B）皮肤模块，其通过一系列微小的“圆盘”提供反馈;（c）使用电粘附的针对这些圆盘中的每一个的选择性制动机构。这种被称为“cobotic”的方法已经为宏观尺度的设备进行了彻底的开发，并且将在这里通过转向致动、车轮设计和意图感测的仔细集成来适应中尺度。触摸机器人将非常紧凑，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系列微小的“冰球”提供，使用选择性断裂机制。这项研究将利用先前在表面触觉、爬壁机器人和数据存储读写头等领域的努力，实现一种高力和高带宽的电粘附设备，可用于控制高密度触觉阵列。通过将这些技术结合到指尖规模的设备中，将有可能展示广泛的表面触觉交互，包括按钮、切换器、凸起的线条画、盲文字符、触觉图形和纹理。将使用渐进式设计方法来确定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，唤起丰富的反馈。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。