Position control of a 3 DOF platform for haptic shape rendering

Haptics is related to the touch feeling: within the framework of virtual reality, the human machine interaction which relies mainly on the hearing and sight may be enhanced by adding the touch sense. Thus, force feedback and tactile feedback systems are now increasingly developed to improve interaction. In this paper, we propose a new haptic device able to render the shape and surface of different objects. For that purpose, a position controlled platform has been designed. The paper introduces the design and the control strategies used to render the accurate shapes of convex or concave surfaces. Experimental and psychophysical results are given to assess the quality of the approach.