COMPUTER SIMULATION AND VIRTUAL PROTOTYP … · 2015-01-30 · contact, complex material behaviour;...
Transcript of COMPUTER SIMULATION AND VIRTUAL PROTOTYP … · 2015-01-30 · contact, complex material behaviour;...
Dr. Zlatko Vidrih
Civil and Computational Engineering Research Centre College of Engineering
Swansea University
Singleton Park
Swansea SA2 8PP
United Kingdom
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.