Action-Origami Inspired Haptic Devices for Virtual Reality

Origami offers an innovative way to implement haptic interaction with minimum actuation, particularly in immersive encountered-type haptics and robotics. This paper presents two novel action-origami-inspired haptic devices for Virtual Reality (VR). The Zipper Flower Tube is a rigid-foldable origami structure that can provide different stiffness sensations to simulate the elastic response of a material. The Shiftly is a shape-shifting haptic display that employs origami to enable a real-time experience of different shapes and edges of virtual objects or the softness of materials. The modular approach of our action origami haptic devices provides a high-fidelity, energy-efficient and low-cost solution for interacting with virtual materials and objects in VR.