Over the years, there has been increased research interest in the application of Nitinol as an actuator, due to its shape memory behaviour, simplicity, high power-to-weight ratio, compactness, and extreme high fatigue...Over the years, there has been increased research interest in the application of Nitinol as an actuator, due to its shape memory behaviour, simplicity, high power-to-weight ratio, compactness, and extreme high fatigue resistance to cyclic motion, and noiseless operation. Nitinol has found application in tactile displays which reproduce tactile parameters such as texture and shape, depending on the application. This paper presents the effects of thermal interference between adjacent Nitinol spring actuators in a tactile display. The tactile display is made of a 3 by 3 pin array whose spatial resolution was varied from 4 mm to 6 mm in steps of 1 mm while a current of 1.5 A was used to actuate 8 of the springs, and the centre spring was left unactivated to observe the thermal effects on it due to the heat gradient formed. A Finite Element (FE) model was developed using COMSOL Multiphysics and the results were further verified through experimentation. In both cases, there was visible thermal interference between actuators. The increase in spatial resolution saw a decrease in thermal interference by 12.7%. Using a fan to introduce forced convection, reduced the thermal interference in the simulation by 20% and during experimentation by 11%. The results of this research indicate a spatial resolution of 6 mm reduced the thermal inference to a negligible rate. However, thermal interference could not be eliminated with these two methods.展开更多
Tactile displays often face challenges like high power consumption,bulky control systems,and limited portability,hindering their application in wearable technologies.This work presents a novel thermopneumatic tactile ...Tactile displays often face challenges like high power consumption,bulky control systems,and limited portability,hindering their application in wearable technologies.This work presents a novel thermopneumatic tactile display that operates via localized heating of a small air volume,enabling lowvoltage operation with standard batteries.Its fully portable design integrates control electronics into a wearable bracelet with Bluetooth activation,enhancing practicality.Mechanical tests demonstrated the device’s ability to generate forces exceeding 30 mN and displacements of tens of microns using pulsed signals with modulable durations and frequencies.User tests with voluntary participants confirmed its effectiveness as a tactile display,achieving 83%accuracy in recognizing Braille patterns.By addressing key limitations of traditional systems,this approach offers a promising solution for compact,low-power wearable tactile interfaces.展开更多
文摘Over the years, there has been increased research interest in the application of Nitinol as an actuator, due to its shape memory behaviour, simplicity, high power-to-weight ratio, compactness, and extreme high fatigue resistance to cyclic motion, and noiseless operation. Nitinol has found application in tactile displays which reproduce tactile parameters such as texture and shape, depending on the application. This paper presents the effects of thermal interference between adjacent Nitinol spring actuators in a tactile display. The tactile display is made of a 3 by 3 pin array whose spatial resolution was varied from 4 mm to 6 mm in steps of 1 mm while a current of 1.5 A was used to actuate 8 of the springs, and the centre spring was left unactivated to observe the thermal effects on it due to the heat gradient formed. A Finite Element (FE) model was developed using COMSOL Multiphysics and the results were further verified through experimentation. In both cases, there was visible thermal interference between actuators. The increase in spatial resolution saw a decrease in thermal interference by 12.7%. Using a fan to introduce forced convection, reduced the thermal interference in the simulation by 20% and during experimentation by 11%. The results of this research indicate a spatial resolution of 6 mm reduced the thermal inference to a negligible rate. However, thermal interference could not be eliminated with these two methods.
文摘Tactile displays often face challenges like high power consumption,bulky control systems,and limited portability,hindering their application in wearable technologies.This work presents a novel thermopneumatic tactile display that operates via localized heating of a small air volume,enabling lowvoltage operation with standard batteries.Its fully portable design integrates control electronics into a wearable bracelet with Bluetooth activation,enhancing practicality.Mechanical tests demonstrated the device’s ability to generate forces exceeding 30 mN and displacements of tens of microns using pulsed signals with modulable durations and frequencies.User tests with voluntary participants confirmed its effectiveness as a tactile display,achieving 83%accuracy in recognizing Braille patterns.By addressing key limitations of traditional systems,this approach offers a promising solution for compact,low-power wearable tactile interfaces.
