A new tactile stimulator using a planar coil type actuator

In this study, we developed a new tactile stimulator using a planar coil type actuator. The newly developed system consists of three units, which are control unit, drive unit, and planar coil type actuator. The control unit of this simulator controls stimulation frequency, intensity, time, and channel. The drive unit amplifies the stimulation signal to drive the actuator. Mechanical tactile stimulation of vibration and normal indentation can be made by modulating the planar coil type actuator and the arrangement of the permanent magnet. Even though the developed stimulator is simple, it has a wide frequency range of 0–400Hz with 40 levels, and intensity modulation of 256 levels. Stimulation intensity does not change due to frequency change. The transient response time is about 100μs. The advantages of this actuator also include safety and usefulness. The performance of this tactile actuator was tested using a dummy finger made of silicone rubber.