Abstract
The paper presents two applications of haptic technologies in the automotive
domain which show how these rather novel technologies can increase the human computer
interaction during the various steps of the design process. The first application aims at
developing a system to generate digital shapes by manipulating haptic tools that resemble the
physical ones, which the modelers use in everyday work. The second application is focused
on the use of haptic interfaces to evaluate ergonomics aspects of virtual control boards. We
have designed and developed the mentioned haptic devices; the device for shape modeling
uses two FCS-HapticMasters equipped with an innovative strong and stiff 6 DOF device
carrying haptic modeling tools. The second device is an "ad hoc" mechatronic system able to
simulate controls with rotary motions (knobs). The paper presents these devices which are the
results of two research projects where haptic technologies are effectively applied to the
conceptual and validation phases of car design.
Keywords: Virtual Prototyping, Product Design, Haptics, Haptic modeling, Human
Computer Interaction