Magnetic Levitation Haptic Consortium
Peter Berkelman (Hawaii), Mark Dzmura, Ian Friedman, Rob Howe (Harvard), John Hollerbach (Utah), Ralph Hollis, Keetak Hong, Doug James, Oussama Khatib (Stanford), Roberta Klatzky, Joey Liang, Dan O'Halloran, Jim Osborn, Dinesh Pai (Rutgers), Matt Pucevich, Tim Salcudean (UBC), Hong Tan (Purdue), Bert Unger, and Vinithra Varadharajan
Low-cost, high-fidelity haptic magnetic levitation haptic interface systems for use by a consortium of haptics researchers in the United States
Magnetic levitation haptic devices allow users to interact with computed environments by manipulating a handle that is levitated by magnetic means. Users can translate and rotate the handle while feeling forces and torques from the virtual environment. The motors, encoders, linkages, gears, belts, cables, and bearings of traditional haptic devices are simply dispensed with in favor of a direct electrodynamic connection to the handle held by the user.
Why use such "exotic" means for facilitating haptic interaction? We believe there are several advantages, including:
- Single moving part with 6 degrees of freedom
- Zero static friction
- Zero mechanical backlash
- High position and force bandwidths
- High position resolution
- Low perceived mass
- Very wide range of stiffnesses possible
- Mechanical simplicity, no tight tolerances
These advantages lead to very high haptic interaction fidelity. The major disadvantage is inherently small motion range, which can be overcome for many applications with scaling, indexing, and rate control.
Lorentz magnetic levitation for haptic interaction with virtual environments and remote environments through teleoperation has been pursued for many years chiefly through the efforts of Tim Salcudean's group at the University of British Columbia, and Ralph Hollis' group at Carnegie Mellon University. We welcome any and all who are experimenting with this mode of haptic interaction.
Several Lorentz levitation devices have been constructed, including the IBM Magic Wrist, the UBC Wrist, the UBC Maglev Joystick, and the CMU Magnetic Levitation Haptic Interface. The UBC joystick device was originally to be commercialized. The IBM and CMU devices have been operated continually since 1998 and used in a number of psychophysical and teleoperation investigations.
The Microdynamic Systems Laboratory is working to provide low-cost high fidelity magnetic levitation haptic interfaces to additional researchers under an NSF Major Research Equipment grant by re-engineering our old magnetic levitation system to provide much higher performance while drastically reducing its cost. We are currently building a batch of 9 new systems for distribution to members of the magnetic levitation haptic consortium. The picture above illustrates the new systems.
The purpose of the consortium is to foster greater utilization of this technology, to share research experiences and results, to develop and share haptic rendering software using the magnetic levitation haptic devices, and to work together as a community to apply the developed knowledge to important problems.
Consortium members can log on here to get further info.