An Enhanced Torque-feedback Device for Ball and Plate Balancing Perception in Virtual Reality

Haptic interface devices help users to have a better perception when they interact with a virtual reality (VR) environment. In this context, ungrounded torque and force feedback devices can greatly enhance users’ experience by transferring physical interactions between the virtual environment and reality in a more tangible way. This article introduces a handheld haptic device that uses two propellers to apply feedback torques and forces to users’ hands, aiming to provide a more immersive experience. The utilization of a servo motor is considered in the design of this haptic device to make the rotation of propellers around the roll axis possible, eliminating the dependence of generated torques and forces direction on users’ hand roll angle. Powered by a LiPo battery and communicating with the VR environment through Bluetooth, the device has no physical connections to the external environment. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the device’s potential as a haptic device by comparing its immersion accuracy to an identical real setup. As the results demonstrate, this haptic device can offer participants a sense of the virtual environment, very close to reality.