Turn-by-Wire Brings Haptic Input Controllers to Lathes

Digital fabrication methods have brought about new capabilities that don’t necessarily mesh with outdated workflows, primarily when they inhibit how those fabrication tools are utilized. There’s a disconnect between user and machine that can’t be overcome with a hands-off approach alone. Take a modern lathe, for example, turning out perfect machine parts is accomplished by inputting a few setting adjustments on the digital readout, and pressing start (more or less). It begs the question: could fabrication machines, in this case, lathes, be more intuitive or have a natural feeling?

According to Ph.D. candidate in computer science (UC Berkeley) Rundong Tian and his team of collaborators, they can and have developed a system that combines the capabilities of a traditional lather with haptic input controllers. Known as Turn-by-Wire, the haptic controllers provide modulation of both position and force in two ways, with the first by changing the mapping between the platforms’ hand cranks and machine movements. The other changes the haptic feedback felt by the user.

Considering the first two ways can be accomplished via programming, Rundong and his team designed three different ways users can interact with lathes, with the first mapping out a tool path using a GUI, which the machinist can then use a single hand crank to move forward and back along that path.

The second involves applying virtual guidelines in the GUI, which the machine and hand cranks’ will utilize to snap the lines into place when nearby. The third allows the hand cranks to be used as a teaching tool machinists can utilize that add varying degrees of haptic feedback resistance depending on the movements. More information on the Turn-by-Wire system can be found in a recently released paper by Rundong and his team.