Development of a Haptic Device Using a 2-DOF Linear Oscillatory Actuator

Mobile haptic devices are being studied extensively as they have a great potential to be used as information transfer devices. Amemiya and Maeda proposed a method for haptic feedback by a linear oscillator using asymmetrical drive. We have then proposed a small two degree-of-freedom oscillatory actuator for application as a haptic device. Using this actuator, we were able to reproduce asymmetric acceleration such as the one by Amemiya and Maeda. However, this waveform is dependent on the mechanical structure of the slider-crank mechanism and thus it is actually not necessary to use it for our actuator. In this paper, we propose a new waveform that is more suitable to the characteristics of our actuator. This compatibility with our actuator can be seen in the power consumption of our actuator, which is decreased by 35%.