Haptic Models of an Automotive Turn-Signal Switch: Identification and Playback Results

Creating accurate haptic models of physical devices is critical to improving the realism and immersiveness of virtual environments. This paper addresses the problem of modeling the feel of an automotive turn-signal switch, a prototypical device chosen for its strongly nonlinear dynamic behavior. Parameters of a position- and direction-dependent nonlinear impedance model are estimated from experimental data using a modified version of the exponentially-weighted least-squares (EWLS) algorithm. The method is then validated through playback experiments in which subjects rate the realism of the resulting models