Output Feedback Control of Wind Display in a Virtual Environment

This research focuses on development of a haptic system to create controlled air flow acting on a user in the Treadport virtual environment. The Treadport active wind tunnel (TPAWT) is thus created in order to produce air flow patterns that allow a variety of wind angles and speeds to be felt by the user. In order to control this system in real-time, the small gain theorem is used in conjunction with a dynamic extension to formulate an output feedback control law. Examples of controller formulations are derived and discrete time simulations in FLUENT demonstrate their effectiveness. The controller is then validated experimentally using a scale model of the TPAWT.