Vibrotactile display for hand-held input device providing spatial and directional information

A hand-held input device providing vibrotactile cues is developed for transmitting spatial and directional information to the users controlling a mobile robot or a manipulator arm. A sphere-shaped handle is applied to make comfortable for gripping the handle, and the input device can provide six degrees of freedom motion of the handle. For maintaining isolation among vibrotactile actuators, surface of the sphere is divided into several pieces. Each vibrating module consists of a vibration motor, a piece of sphere surface and a vibration absorber. Spatial and directional information can be generated using sensory saltation and phantom sensation. As an evaluation of the developed device, two experiments were conducted. Experimental results show that the developed device is useful for displaying intuitive information for controlling mobile robot with vibrotactile feedback.