Development of a miniaturized thermal module designed for integration in a wearable haptic device

This work presents the development of a novel thermal display for transient heat rendering in virtual environments. The design of the fingertip device focused on the low weight and compactness in order to achieve a high level of wearability and high performance in thermal rendering. The device is intended for integration with the Haptic Thimble device, in order to develop a novel interface for thermal and haptic rendering of virtual surfaces. An iterative Finite Elements (FE) procedure has been performed within the design process in order to numerically validate the final design of the thermal module. Finally, a thorough experimental characterization has been performed in order to evaluate the dynamic thermal capabilities of the prototype, considering also the finger contact response and the temperature uniformity of the plate in contact with the finger.