Toward the Design of 2D Pressure Profile Display for Bilateral Teleoperation

Tactile feedback can enhance user perception and maneuverability in bilateral teleoperation when interacting with a remote environment. Many researches have been done on tactile devices that focused on the recreation of remote environment’s outer features, such as shapes and surface textures. However, not as much focus has been put on displaying an object’s inner features. This research aims to explore this direction. Inner softness distribution of the remote environment will be displayed by manipulating the pressure profile at the interface between a user and the device. In this paper, we discuss the design of a 2D pressure profile tactile display unit using a pin array under an elastic layer. A theoretical model that relates the pin forces and the displayed pressure, along with the results of evaluation experiments, are provided.