Multi-dimensional force sensor for haptic interaction: a review

Haptic interaction plays an important role in the virtual reality technology, which let a person not only view the 3D virtual environment but also realistically touch the virtual environment. As a key part of haptic interaction, force feedback has become an essential function for the haptic interaction. Therefore, multi-dimensional force sensors are widely used in the fields of virtual reality and augmented reality. In this paper, some conventional multi-dimensional force sensors based on different measurement principles, such as resistive, capacitive, piezoelectric, are briefly introduced. Then the mechanical structures of the elastic body of multi-dimensional force sensors are reviewed. It is obvious that the performance of the multi-dimensional force sensor is mainly dependent upon the mechanical structure of elastic body. Furthermore, the calibration process of the force sensor is analyzed, and problems in calibration are discussed. Interdimensional coupling error is one of the main factors affecting the measurement precision of the multi-dimensional force sensors. Therefore, reducing or even eliminating dimensional coupling error becomes a fundamental requirement in the design of multi-dimensional force sensors, and the decoupling state-of-art of the multi-dimensional force sensors are introduced in this paper. At last, the trends and current challenges of multi-dimensional force sensing technology are proposed.