Dr. Zlatko Vidrih

Civil and Computational Engineering Research Centre College of Engineering

Swansea University

Singleton Park

Swansea SA2 8PP

United Kingdom

z.vidrih@swansea.ac.uk

PROTOTOUCH is an EU funded FP7 Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN)

prototouch.org

COMPUTER SIMULATION AND VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING OF

TACTILE DISPLAYS

Numerical modelling often reflects the level of scientific understanding in specific

research areas. This is because numerical formulations can only be postulated when

interacting phenomena are understood to such a level that governing relationships

can be expressed in quantitative terms. Review of previous and on-going research

reveals that biomechanical analyses of tactile scenarios covered mainly macro and

mesoscopic scales, where the focus has been on the evolution of stress-strain tensors

at sampling points corresponding to the locations of mechanoreceptors. However, at

these levels it is unclear which combinations of stress and strain tensor components

are relevant for mechanotransduction.

The development of a multiscale finite element framework for the simulation of

tactile scenarios, which incorporated the neuro-mechanical coupling, started in an

FP6 project called NanoBioTact and continued in an FP7 project, NanoBioTouch,

where it was enhanced with cellular-mechanical coupling to provide the link between

macroscopic tactile stimuli with the molecular basis of mechanotransduction.

THE MAIN RESEARCH GOAL IS TO EXPLOIT MULTISCALE MULTIPHYSICS SIMULATION SOFTWARE, SUPPORTED

BY NEUROPHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENTS, FOR THE VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING AND OPTIMISATION OF

TACTILE DISPLAYS, WHICH WITH THE ASSOCIATED RESEARCH ACTIVITIES, WILL LEAD TO A RADICAL

UNDERSTANDING OF THE UNDERLYING DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND HENCE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE

GENERATION DEVICES.

A critical component of PROTOTOUCH is the deployment of an inter-disciplinary

network for applying the developments made in previous two projects to tactile

displays. The main research goal is to exploit multiscale-multiphysics

simulation software, supported by neurophysiological measurements, for the

virtual prototyping and optimisation of tactile displays, which with the

associated research activities, will lead to a radical understanding of the

underlying design principles and hence to the development of future generation

devices.

The fellows at Swansea University (UK) are, in cooperation with the fellows

from C3M (Slovenia), extending the computational platform for multiscale-

multiphysics modelling of tactile contacts between finger pad and the reference

standards (surfaces) and finger pad and tactile displays. The goal is to provide a

software framework with the graphical user interface for finite element method

for highly nonlinear continuum mechanics problems, comprising frictional

contact, complex material behaviour; multiscale and multiphysics coupling, and

biophysics of tactile contact, etc.