FingerPrint, A Fully 3D-Printed Fingertip Haptic Device

Meet "FingerPrint", our latest monolithically 3-D printed, soft fingertip haptic device based on an origami mechanism that embeds multiple foldable vacuum actuators and fluidic channels. It produces 4-DoF of motion on the finger pad with tunable haptic forces (up to 1.3 N lateral and 7 N normal) and torque (up to 25 N-mm) for skin shear, pressure, and vibro-tactile feedback. Including the thimble mounting for the fingertip, the compact device is 20 mm wide and 40 mm long. We demonstrate the efficacy of our method for designing and rapidly fabricating miniature yet complex wearable mechanisms with force output appropriate for haptic interaction. The research article has recently been accepted to RoboSoft 2022 conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.