High performance haptic device for force rendering in textile exploration.

The HAPTEX system aims to develop a new multi-sensory environment for the immersive exploration of textiles. HAPTEX is based on a multi-layer/multi-thread architecture that optimizes the computational speed and integrates three different types of sensory feedback: vision, tactile and haptic. Such kind of environment is suitable for demanding VR applications such as the online marketing of novel textiles or garments, however it requires the design of a high performance multi-point haptic interface. The present work focuses on the haptic device design and describes how demanding requirements can be met by integrating on a high performance device a force sensor to achieve closed loop control. The methodology for the dimensioning of a motion based explicit force control on the basis of the dynamic parameters will be discussed and the specific implementation for the HAPTEX system presented.