Abstract
A mechatronics system to support mental image creation was developed. The mechanical part of the system is a 3-DOF manipulator that is composed of a 2-DOF quadrilateral parallel-link actuator and a rotational actuator embedded at arm-end of the parallel-link. A couple of servomotors of the 2-DOF manipulator control the arm-end position. The arm-end actuator controls the direction of a knob attached to the rotational actuator axis. The person is assumed to pinch the knob by his/her fingertips. The knob is rotated to indicate the direction of the on-going stroke, and the position of the knob axis traces the strokes of the presented figures sequentially. A couple of preeminent functions are embedded in the process: one is a preparation effect by "the direction-indicating function," and the other is the reviewal effect by "the traction function." The direction-indicating and traction functions play complementary role
