Microfabrication of Three-Axis Tactile Feedback Actuator for Robot-Assisted Surgery

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a three-axis tactile feedback actuator using pneumatic balloons for human perception applications such as robot-assisted surgery systems. A tactile actuator is composed of a center structure having four balloons, sidewalls with one lateral balloon on each sidewall, and a bottom structure supporting the center structure. We fabricated the proposed device using flexible poly(dimethylsiloxane) and hard polyurethane with final dimensions of 18 x 18 x 18 mm(3). The four balloons on the center structure produce normal tactile display during pneumatic-pressure-assisted inflation. The lateral movement of the center structure driven by sidewall balloons generates a shear tactile display on fingertips. The center deflections of the circular and rectangular balloons were calculated and measured experimentally. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics