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  • Open Access
  • © 2023

Engineering Haptic Devices

  • This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access.
  • Major reference and textbook for classes on haptic device development
  • Covers all relevant areas from psychophysics to system engineering and component design
  • Greatly reworked sections on software and kinematic design

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems (SSTHS)

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Hardcover Book USD 59.99
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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxix
  2. Basics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
    2. Motivation and Application of Haptic Systems

      • Thorsten A. Kern, Christian Hatzfeld
      Pages 3-33Open Access
    3. Haptics as an Interaction Modality

      • Christian Hatzfeld, Thorsten A. Kern
      Pages 35-108Open Access
    4. The User’s Role in Haptic System Design

      • Thorsten A. Kern, Christian Hatzfeld, Fady Youssef
      Pages 109-131Open Access
    5. Development of Haptic Systems

      • Thorsten A. Kern, Christian Hatzfeld
      Pages 133-149Open Access
  3. Designing Haptic Systems

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-152
    2. Identification of Requirements

      • Jörg Reisinger, Thorsten A. Kern, Christian Hatzfeld
      Pages 153-190Open Access
    3. General System Structures

      • Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Thorsten A. Kern
      Pages 191-202Open Access
    4. Control of Haptic Systems

      • Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Thomas Opitz, Oliver Meckel
      Pages 203-265Open Access
    5. Kinematic Design

      • Fady Youssef, Sebastian Kassner
      Pages 267-307Open Access
    6. Actuator Design

      • Thorsten A. Kern, Henry Haus, Marc Matysek, Stephanie Sindlinger
      Pages 309-429Open Access
    7. Sensor Design

      • Jacqueline Gölz, Christian Hatzfeld
      Pages 431-516Open Access
    8. Interface Design

      • Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Thorsten A. Kern
      Pages 517-535Open Access
    9. Haptic Software Design

      • Arsen Abdulali, Seokhee Jeon
      Pages 537-585Open Access
    10. Evaluation of Haptic Systems

      • Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Jörg Reisinger, Carsten Neupert, Christian Hatzfeld, Wenliang Zhou
      Pages 587-623Open Access
    11. Examples of Haptic System Development

      • Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Thorsten Meiss, Nataliya Koev, Jörg Reisinger
      Pages 625-674Open Access
    12. Conclusion

      • Thorsten A. Kern, Christian Hatzfeld, Alireza Abbasimoshaei, Arsen Abdulali, Jacqueline Gölz, Jörg Reisinger et al.
      Pages 675-677Open Access
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 679-687

About this book

This is an open access book.

In this third edition of Engineering Haptic Devices the software part was rewritten from scratch and now includes even more details on tactile and texture interaction modalities. The kinematics section was improved to extend beyond a pure knowledge explanation to a comprehensive guideline on how to actually do and implement haptic kinematic functions. The control section was reworked incorporating some hands-on experience on control implementation on haptic systems. The system, actuator and sensor design chapters were updated to allow easier access to the content.

This book is written for students and engineers faced with the development of a task-specific haptic system. Now 14 years after its first edition, it is still a reference for the basics of haptic interaction and existing haptic systems and methods as well as an excellent source of information for technical questions arising in the design process of systems and components.

Following a system engineering approach, it is divided into two parts with Part I containing background and reference information as a knowledge basis. Typical application areas of haptic systems and a thorough analysis of haptics as an interaction modality are introduced. The role of users in the design of haptic systems is discussed and relevant design and development stages are outlined. Part II presents all related challenges in the design of haptic systems including general system architecture and control structures, kinematics, actuator principles and all types of sensors you may encounter doing haptic device development. Beside these hardware and mechanical topics, further chapters examine state-of-the-art interfaces to operate the devices, and hardware and software development to push haptic systems to their limits.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Institute for Mechatronics (M-4), Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany

    Thorsten A. Kern, Alireza Abbasimoshaei

  • Institut für Elektromechanische Konstruktionen, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

    Christian Hatzfeld

About the editors

Thorsten A. Kern received his Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees from Darmstadt University of Technology (TUDA), Germany in the fields of actuator and sensor development for medical human-machine-interfaces (HMIs) in applications like minimally-invasive surgery and catheterizations. He is currently a director at Hamburg University of Technology, Germany, of the Institute for Mechatronics in Mechanics. He previously worked in Automotive Industry at Continental as a R&D manager for interior components, leading a team of 300 engineers worldwide. He joined Continental in 2008 covering various functions with increasing range of responsibility in actuator development, motor-development and active haptic device development before shifting towards R&D management and product-management on Head-Up-Displays. Between 2006 and 2008 he was working in parallel in a startup focussing on medical interventions and was finalizing the 1st edition of „Engineering Haptic Devices“. He joined Hamburg University in January 2019. His interests are specifically focussed on all types of electromagnetic sensors and actuators and their system-integration towards larger motor- or sensor-systems in high-dynamic applications.

Christian Hatzfeld joined the Institute of Electromechanical Design of Technische Universität Darmstadt as a research and teaching assistant in 2008 working in the group of (Measurement and Sensor Technologies) of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil Roland Wertschützky. He received his doctoral degree in 2013 for a work about the perception of vibrotactile forces. Then he was the leader of the “Haptic Systems” group until his death in 2018. His research interests included development and design methods for task-specific haptic systems and the utilization of human perception properties to alleviate the technical design. He was the main editor of edition 2 of Engineering Haptic Devices and contributed significantly to a large number of chapters specifically focussing on psychophysical topics.


Alireza Abbasimoshaei is currently a researcher assistant at the Institute for Mechatronics in Mechanics at the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany. Before joining iMEK, he designed and built four robots and controlled them. The last one was at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany. He filed two patents for rehabilitation devices and sold a finger rehabilitation robot he developed to a hospital partner. He also developed a new control system for rehabilitation robots in the field of control. He is an expert in mechatronic system design with special emphasis on mechanical and control system design.







Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

Softcover Book USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access