Haptic Feedback Arm for Virtual Reality

A physical arm that can be used for interacting with VR system

VR System Design



Overview

Virtual Reality Systems have become more mainstream as technology continues to progress towards an online virtual world. Not only are games moving into the VR space, but educational experiences are, too. In this project, we collaborated with Gear Learning, a VR Educational Video Game Company affiliated with UW-Madison to create a glove to further enhance the VR experience through hands-free movement, touch haptics, and a force grip feedback system.


01

Design Considerations


Goal

  • To create a prototype that provides force and tactile haptic feedback from interactions in VR.
  • To develop an easy-to-use software package to integrate with the Physics engine, Unity.


    • Testing

    Shielded box: Hidden shape for user detection.


    Technical Requirements or Challenges

  • Tracking hand and finger movement
  • Restricting movement of fingers (Force haptics)
  • Providing the sensation of touch (Tactile Haptics)
  • Communicating signals to computer
  • Powering electronics
  • Doing all the above with low latency


    • 02

    Design


    Image

    Tactile Feedback: Phone actuators


    Image

    Finger tracking: Flex sensors and rotary Encoder. Force Feedback: Solenoid


    03

    Testing and Results


    Major Milestones:

    Hardware Data Collection and Control
  • Able to collect data from flex sensors and potentiometer to detect when fingers move.
  • Able to control solenoids and phone actuators for haptic feedback.
    • Hardware - Software Communication
  • Software written to communicate between arduino and the game engine, Unity.
    • Pong Game
  • Utilizing potentiometer, we were able to send finger movement data to Unity and control the movement of a paddle in game space.


    • 04

    Future Work


    1. Mapping sensors to VR hand: Process data collected from flex and rotary sensors and map to fingers in VR space.

    2. Implementing force haptics: Use Solenoids and string to stop fingers from moving.

    3. Shielded Box: Final measure of success; Place object in “box” in VR and allow user to determine shape of object using glove.