Sensorless Control of Heat Inflow to a Thermal Display Using a Heat Inflow Observer

The acquisition of information on heat inflow is essential to the control of thermal displays and the rendering of thermal sensations. This paper addresses a method of estimating the amount of heat inflow without using a heat flow sensor and demonstrates sensorless heat inflow control using a Peltier device, which is often employed as a thermal device in thermal displays. Moreover, this paper introduces a method of identifying the thermal contact resistance of the device needed for the proposed observer. The observer estimates heat inflow by using information on electrical currents and temperatures. By using the observer instead of a heat flow sensor, which generally has a larger thermal capacity than a temperature sensor, an improvement in the response of a thermal device is expected. The applicability of the proposal is tested by experiments.