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Air Hockey Simulator through a 2-DoF Kinesthetic Haptic System

Course: [ME683] Human Robot Interaction (KAIST)
Role: Developer
Stack: Kinesthetic Haptic Rendering, Unity, Teensy, Serial Communication

Abstract

This project presents an air hockey simulator built around a two-degree-of-freedom planar kinesthetic haptic device. The system renders mallet–puck impacts, virtual table boundaries, surface friction, and spatial textures as real-time force feedback. To maintain a high-frequency haptic loop, forward kinematics, virtual physics, force computation, and PWM motor control are executed on a Teensy 4.1, while Unity provides visualization, gameplay logic, and configurable parameters such as puck mass and ground material. The rendering model combines penetration-based spring forces, velocity-dependent damping, and position-dependent vibration. Mechanical improvements, which includes stiffer I-beam links, guided cable-routing grooves, and adjustable cable tensioners, were incorporated to improve planar motion, force-transmission consistency, and feedback repeatability. The resulting prototype demonstrates an integrated hardware and software framework for interactive 2D kinesthetic simulation.