Towards an Open Source Haptic Kit to teach basic STEM concepts

Haptic paddles have proven to be effective tools to teach basic concepts in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education at K-12 (Kindergarten to Grade 12) level. However such devices are yet to undergo commercialization to facilitate their large scale usage by young and enthusiastic K-12 pupils. Most of the haptic paddles are available in research labs only besides being expensive, complex in nature and difficult to replicate, etc. In this work, we demonstrate the design and development of an affordable open source haptic kit with a remarkable plug and play feature. The developed kit consists of a 3D printed 1-DOF (Degrees of Freedom) haptic paddle, popular Arduino UNO as the controller, a customized driver board as shield, and a simple GUI as virtual environment. In particular, the paper discusses various issues, and the solutions proposed thereby, in using Arduino UNO as the controller for the kit. The kit features an open source, compact and portable nature, making it ideal to reproduce, modify, interface with software like MATLAB and commercialize with intended use at the K-12 level.