Thermal impedance control for thermal rendering technique

Rendering technique of tactile sensation is necessary to communicate and share feelings between remote locations. This research focuses on thermal sensation, and not only precise rendering of tactile information but also environmental identification is conducted. Thermal sensation is changed depending on thermal impedance such as thermal resistance and thermal capacitance. In this paper, the identification method of thermal impedance is proposed, and rendering the identified thermal parameters is conducted. The method consists of identification using thermal conductivity and reproduction based on thermal impedance control. In order to identify thermal parameters of an object, an iterative least square technique is used. The proposed method is able to render thermal response precisely for human because thermal impedance is identified based on heat flow in the same way as human skin sensation. The validity of the proposed method is verified through some experiments.