Effect of Structure on Driving Characteristics of the Tactile Pin Actuator for Reaction Force Variable Tactile Displays

This paper addresses the effect of structure on driving characteristics of the tactile pin actuator using Ti-Ni-Cu high formable shape memory alloy (HFSMA) for reaction force variable tactile displays. The actuator has a cross shaped 3D structure as a tactile pin that is convex at the center. When the tactile pin is pushed by a finger, it transforms and generates a reaction force against the finger. According to the superelastic effect of SMA, the reaction force can be changed by monitoring the device temperature, allowing tactile displays to present softness and hardness. We examined the driving characteristics of the actuators with different tactile pin height by simulation and measurement of actual samples. When the tactile pin height was low, the tactile pin was only deformed elasticity and reaction force was not changed with increasing device temperature. On the other hands, when the tactile pin height was large, the tactile pin was deformed with the induced martensitic transformation, and reaction force increased with increasing device temperature. In addition, the reaction force at certain temperature was increased as the tactile pin height increased, which means that this actuator can vary the range of reaction force by changing its tactile pin height. © 2023 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.