Abstract
A 2-stage electro-adhesion (EA) is proposed to realize a passive haptic mouse with a simple structure. The proposed 2-stage EA consists of two thin EA pads, which are vertically stacked. The upper EA pad can move freely over the lower one within a limited stroke, when the voltage is not applied. When the voltage is applied to the upper pad, it adheres to the lower EA pad, comprising a single EA system. The lower EA is used for haptic rendering. When installed to the bottom surface of a mouse, haptic feedback force is rendered by friction created by the lower EA pad. Such a friction-based haptic system is known to suffer from so-called sticky-wall problem. When a mouse (and its proxy pointer) is in a virtual wall, the rendered friction force prevents the mouse from escaping from the wall and the wall is felt sticky, which is the problem. Simple pilot experiments showed that the proposed 2-stage EA could easily solve the sticky-wall problem. In the proposed 2-stage EA pad, by setting the upper pad free, the mouse connected to the upper pad can escape from a virtual wall easily, as the upper pad is allowed to move toward the outside of the wall due to its free motion against the lower pad.
