Design and control of a two degree of freedom haptic device for the application of PC video games

In this paper, a haptic device is developed for PC video games, considering such specifications as bandwidth and resolution of human hand, workspace, and back-drivability. It has two degrees-of-freedom of rotation using a gimbal mechanism. For force reflection, two DC motors are used, and for torque amplification, cable transmission is used. For sensing of the reflected torque, a current sensor is used instead of high-cost force/torque sensor, using the property that the torque is linearly proportional to the current in the DC motor. For a joystick angle sensor, a potentiometer is used due to low-cost and enough resolution for torque reflection. It is analyzed that the torque reflection required to achieve motion realization for the video games are the spring torque and damping torque, which are implemented. The time and frequency response of the haptic joystick are demonstrated experimentally. The result will be presented. Additionally, simple dynamic programs which have the force reflection capability are implemented. The proposed haptic joystick is shown to be feasible in the applications of the haptic joystick for PC video games