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Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Volume 178, May 2012, Pages 209-216
Hyung-Sik Kim, Mi-Hyun Choi, Hong-Won Yeon, Jae-Hoon Jun, Jeong-Han Yi, Jong-Rak Park, Dae-Woon Lim, Soon-Cheol Chung
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Biomedical & Health Science, Konkuk University, Chungju, South Korea
Department of Photonic Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju, South Korea
Department of Information & Communication Engineering, Dongguk University, Seoul, South Korea
Abstract
In this study, we developed a new tactile stimulator using a planar coil type actuator. The newly developed system consists of three units, which are control unit, drive unit, and planar coil type actuator. The control unit of this simulator controls stimulation frequency, intensity, time, and channel. The drive unit amplifies the stimulation signal to drive the actuator. Mechanical tactile stimulation of vibration and normal indentation can be made by modulating the planar coil type actuator and the arrangement of the permanent magnet. Even though the developed stimulator is simple, it has a wide frequency range of 0–400 Hz with 40 levels, and intensity modulation of 256 levels. Stimulation intensity does not change due to frequency change. The transient response time is about 100 us. The advantages of this actuator also include safety and usefulness. The performance of this tactile actuator was tested using a dummy finger made of silicone rubber.
