Design and Experimental Evaluation of an Electrorheological Haptic Module with Embedded Sensing

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this manuscript the authors report a haptic module which functions based on tunable viscosity of electrorheological fluid, which was then combined with a bending sensor to control desired actuation force.

My major concern regarding this paper is that most of the contents of the manuscript are repeated from the authors' own works in the literature (Mazursky 2020 , Smart Materials and Structures and Mazursky 2019, Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures). Most of the images have been repeated without copyright statements (I hope the authors are aware that even if the images are taken by themselves, they are not always the copyright owners). Most of the technical information reported in the paper, such as the design of the electrorheological actuator, calibration and testing provided in the manuscript is published in the aforementioned paper by the author. In fact, even the written content is sometimes copy pasted as is from the authors' earlier writings (which is not allowed in scientific publications). For e.g. The first paragraph of the paper, "In the field of human-computer interaction,..... accessibility and entertainment" is also the exact same first paragraph of the authors earlier paper Mazursky 2020 , Smart Materials and Structures. In fact the entire introduction is almost a copy-paste from their earlier paper with the only efforts being insertion/deletion of few words here and there. This paper should be rejected since the efforts of the authors were only towards publishing an additional paper rather than dissemination of good quality scientific research.

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper presents a force-feedback controllable haptic module based on electrorheological fluid.

The paper is well written and all the results are well presented, so this reviewer suggests minor revision; however, there are some points that should be better addressed before publication.

• How about repeatability pf the measurements? The Authors should provide the cyclic readings of the bending sensor. If already present in literature (the reviewer guesses it is in Mazursky 2020) a citation and a reference to the number are needed.
• What is the range of conductivity within the different sensors? From Fig.7 it seems there are some differences (±50k) is it correct? Are the sensor developed in house or bought form an external supplier? In the second case, pease provide additional information.
• From Fig 10 and 11 it seems that the highest force change is not due to the change in stiffness of the electrorheological fluid.  Did the Authors take care about the wall effects due to the rigid components of the structure? A comparison graph with the non-activated and activated state of the the fluid is needed together with a more in-deep discussion  of the results.
• Regarding the point above, a more detailed description of the sizes of the device would be provided (i.e., thickness of the membrane, volume of the fluid).
• Is the change in stiffness (of the fluid itself) perceivable by the end user?

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript is well-written overall.  The background, motivation and the operating principle of the ER-based haptic device are well-explained.  The results are also nicely presented. 

A few comments and questions:

In the force vs. depth tests (e.g., Fig. 2a), the result seems to be affected by the speed of pressing.  Please briefly discuss this. 

The bending sensor consists of two polyimide (PI) shielding layers.  This sounds confusing since typically the shielding layer needs to be conductive.  Please clarify. 

How will the temperature sensitivity of the bending sensor affect the operation?

In the mapped frequency experiment, the frequency increases from 5 Hz to 10 Hz over the 1 mm stroke.  To increase the resolution, can the frequency at 1 mm stroke to higher? 

Author Response

Please see the attachment

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf