Project description
A tiny haptic actuator for touch-sensitive applications offers outsized performance
Haptic technologies exploit the sense of touch, providing feedback to device users. Given that drivers should direct their visual attention to the road, the market for haptics in automobiles is growing. Haptic actuators can provide tactile feedback in haptic assistance or warning systems, and they can even be used to enhance entertainment. The Italian SME Tastitalia has been developing human machine interfaces since 1999. The EU-funded TETRHA project is supporting the team in optimising their miniaturised electromagnetic haptic actuator for the automotive industry and other applications. The innovation offers faster response time, higher vibration force, multisensory interaction and inaudible acoustic feedback, all at a significantly lower cost than alternatives.
Objective
Haptic actuators are the devices that provide users of touch sensitive surfaces with tactile feedback. Tactile feedback in Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) is employed across a broad spectrum of industries such as the automotive, home appliances, aerospace and hotels/cafes/restaurants (HORECA) sectors. There are three types of actuators commonly employed in HMI and these are the Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM), Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA) and the Piezo Electric actuator. The problems presented by ERM and LRA include slow response time, vibration of the whole device which causes noise and diminished user experience as the user can only feel the touch screen and not the virtual object displayed on the screen. The actuators are also bulky, and this affects the aesthetics of the devices they are used in. The Piezo Electric actuators are the best to date but are expensive and require high voltages making them difficult to drive. The haptic technology market was worth €5.56 billion in 2017 and Europe accounted for around 8% of this market. The global market is set to reach €16.08 billion by 2025. TASTITALIA Srl, established in 1999, is a company that specialises in HMI technology and produces HMI such as touch screens and panels, keypads and automotive dials. Through this project, TETRHA, TASTITALIA presents a novel miniaturised electromagnetic haptic actuator for use primarily, but not limited to, the automotive industry. Apart from the compact dimensions, our solution also provides users with improved haptic feedback in terms of faster response time, higher vibration force, enhanced user experience through multisensory interaction and inaudible acoustic feedback. Our haptic actuators can be customised and together with their compactness, improved aesthetic appeal of final products is guaranteed. Our haptic actuators cost 20–30% less than the available market options. TETRHA will provide TASTITALIA with a turnover of €4.81M and a return of investment of 12.52%.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringautomotive engineering
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringsensors
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectrical engineeringpiezoelectrics
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
60222 CASTELFIDARDO
Italy
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.