A mechatronic device for simulating push-buttons and knobs

General purpose haptic interfaces are receiving increasing attention in the field of robotics and mechatronics, because of their great flexibility for simulating many different kinds of interaction between user and virtual objects/environments. The paper describes a special-purpose haptic interface devoted to simulate the behavior of knobs and push buttons, with the aim of performing tests on different geometries and designs. In particular, the paper focuses on the control of the presented device, whose task is to provide a reaction to the external solicitation as similar as possible to that of a real knob or button