Development of a tactile vest

This research is focused on the development of a torso-based haptic display that can be used to present navigational cues to a human operator. The requirements for this display are that it can be worn on a mobile operator, is light weight and robust. Two tactile vests are being developed to meet these objectives, one based on small electric motors and the other on contractile shape-memory alloy (SMA) fibers. Four electromechanical actuators were evaluated for use in the vest and a small vibration motor was selected for the initial prototype. A 3×3 array was fabricated for psychophysical testing and positioned on the lower back. High accuracy in perceiving the direction of factor activation was achieved by all subjects in this task. A factor array based on SMA actuators was fabricated and tested and results indicate that this low-bandwidth device can generate tactile inputs on the torso that are perceptible.