Schlagwort: Force Feedback

  • This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors

    This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    The joysticks found on ordinary controllers are quite simple, and as a result, they fail to provide much in the way of haptic feedback for the user. This is especially tough in racing or flight simulator games where making sharp turns should require a greater amount of force.

    YouTuber zeroshot’s project aimed to overcome this by combining a pair of stepper motors and positional sensors into a single two-axis joystick for use in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Based on how a gimbal can rotate in several directions while moving along static axes, the custom 3D-printed housing features a central pivot point and two sub-frames that each connect to ball bearings in the base for smooth movements.

    The motors are responsible for applying a varied amount of force that is constantly trying to realign the joystick to the center. An Arduino Micro was selected since it could act as a native USB human interface device (HID) to relay the positions being sensed by the magnetic encoders to the host machine. This data was also used to instruct the motors on how far to move in each axis.

    Once fully assembled, zeroshot’s next-level flight joystick was able to provide plenty of resistance when flying in a virtual cockpit and could even fly the plane itself once a few inputs had been preprogrammed into the Micro.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdNP5jIJ0dU?feature=oembed&w=500&h=281]

    The post This custom flight joystick provides force feedback with stepper motors appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK

  • This strange exoskeleton glove enables VR force feedback

    This strange exoskeleton glove enables VR force feedback

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    We’re currently seeing something of a technological blitzkrieg as corporations and engineers attempt to solve the problem of tactility in virtual reality (VR). Modern VR headsets provide quite realistic visual and auditory immersion, but that immersion falls apart when users find themselves unable to physically interact with virtual objects. Developed by a team of National Chengchi University researchers, ELAXO is an Arduino-controlled exoskeleton glove that enables complex force feedback for VR applications.

    ELAXO looks unwieldy — it is like an exoskeleton glove made up of 3D-printed struts and joints. In the demonstrated setup, ELAXO mounts to the user’s wrist and has force feedback structures attached to their thumb and first two fingers. Each finger receives four servo motors, four small DC motors, and one larger DC motor. Those motors attach to joints to create on-demand physical resistance to movement.

    For two fingers and a thumb, ELAXO requires a total of 12 servos, 12 small DC motors, and three large DC motors. Each finger also needs an infrared (IR) sensor, for a total of three. In addition, the large DC motors contain encoders that use two wires each. Controlling those takes a lot of I/O pins, which is why the ELAXO team chose an Arduino Mega board for their prototype. It controls the motors through eight dual TB6612FNG drivers.

    The Arduino powers the motors according to what happens in the VR world. For example, if a user tries to touch a stationary object, the motors on that finger might get full power to keep the joints from bending and to provide a feeling of solid resistance. Other actions, like rotating a knob, result in less resistance. By gaining granular control over the resistance of each joint, ELAXO can produce convincing force feedback.

    The post This strange exoskeleton glove enables VR force feedback appeared first on Arduino Blog.

    Website: LINK