The development of variably compliant haptic systems using magnetorheological fluids

Abstract

In this study the authors develop haptic systems for telerobotic surgery. In order to model the full range of tactile force exhibited from an MR damper a microstructural, kinetic theory-based model of Magnetorheological (MR) fluids has been developed. Microscale constitutive equations relating flow, stress, and particle orientation are produced. The model developed is fully vectorial and relationships between the stress tensor and the applied magnetic field vector are fully exploited. The higher accuracy of the model in this regard gives better force representations of highly compliant objects. This model is then applied in force feedback control of single degree of freedom (SDOF) and two degrees of freedom (2DOF) systems. Carbonyl iron powders with different particle sizes mixed with silicone oils with different viscosities are used to make several sample MR fluids. These MR fluid samples are then used in three different designed MR dampers. A State feedback control algorithm is employed to control a SDOF system and tracking a 2-D profile path using a special innovative MR force feedback joystick. The results indicate that the MR based force feedback dampers can be used as effective haptic devices. The systems designed and constructed in this paper can be extended to a three degree of freedom force feedback system appropriate for telerobotic surgery.

Magnetorheological fluid based automotive steer-by-wire systems

“…These models are extremely successful in deducing macroscale viscoelastic properties of nanoparticle/Newtonian fluid systems that agree with experiments from microstructural measurements. We comment that the models we deduce for MR fluids are fully three dimensional and applicable to any flow geometry [18,19].…”

“…While present rheological based modeling techniques of MR fluids work well for modeling dampers [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], clutches , and brakes [16,17], there are some advanced applications (e.g. tactile and force feedback systems) that require higher fidelity models, force feedback, and variable compliance [18][19][20]. The advantages of using MR fluids in haptic devices stem from the increase in transparency gained from the lightweight semiactive system and controller implementation.…”

Feedback force evaluation for a novel robotic catheter navigation system

“…Visual-only feedback is ineffective, and a haptic device can create better human/machine interface through force feedback [17]. In order to realize the force feedback, a damper is used based on the intelligent fluid-MR fluid.…”

Design of a Magnetorheological Damper-Based Haptic Interface for Rehabilitation Applications

“…Hoyle et al (2010) developed an MR-damper-based parallel planar robot. Ahmadkhanlou et al (2005Ahmadkhanlou et al ( , 2008) have proposed a system capable of performing surgical operations and also developed a 5-DOF MR-based serial robotic arm that is used to control a remote 5-DOF robot (the slave).…”