A basic study of a force display using a metal hydride actuator

Abstract

A new method of a force display is proposed for presenting the sense of force to an elbow joint using a metal hydride (MH) actuator to be used in artificial reality and tele-existence robot. An MH actuator is very suitable for the force display because it works smoothly without any noise. In addition, the actuator is compact, light weight, and it has an adequate compliance. From simple tests, it was found that the actuator could raise a load of 10 kg up to a height of 50 mm at a speed of 9 mm/sec using a 6 g MH alloy. A force display made by the MH actuator was attached to a human elbow joint and two psychophysical experiments were carried out to investigate whether or not the actuator is useful for the force display to create an artificial reality.<>