Advanced DC Motor Drive for Haptic Devices

Haptics covers many different forms of mechanical interaction with human senses by engaging, touch, vibrations and forces/torques, established for the purpose of augmenting the feedback structure during human-machine interaction. A haptic device has mechanical part, moved by actuators from one and human hand or fingers from the other, actuators, drives, sensing elements, as well as algorithms designed to control the interaction between human and machine in positioning and motion control tasks. With such a system, motors can be controlled in a way to simulate various environments, defined by their material and dynamics, for example pushing soft ball uphill. Haptic devices are becoming more popular in medical applications after introduction of modern medical robots with many different extensions for minimally invasive surgery or diagnostics based on palpation. This paper discusses one DC motor driver custom designed for the purpose of designing a haptic device for medical applications.