Design, characterization and control of SMA springs-based multi-modal tactile display device for biomedical applications

Tactile display is recently attracting much attention in the field of human-computer interaction. There is a strong need for such a device especially for applications in which the touch feeling is lost, such as surgeons who are willing to feel the tissue hardness during laparoscopic surgeries. In this paper, a novel multi-modal tactile display device which can display both surface shape and stiffness of an object is introduced. The conceptual design is built upon using two springs, made of Shape Memory Alloys (SMA), for displaying shape and stiffness. The design parameters of this device are selected based on the spatial resolution of human finger and the elasticity range of the soft tissue. The display device is simulated using Finite Element Method (FEM) to study the effect of design parameters on the resulting stiffness. Simulation results show that the device can display stiffness of an object independent of its shape display. The experimental setup is built and used for the characterization and control of the SMA springs. Experimental results show that the device can display a stiffness range of (35-110) N/m and elongation up to 5 mm.