Space Mouse
Space Mouse
Space Mouse
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SAPCE MOUSE
INTRODUCTION
Every day of your computing life, you reach out for the mouse whenever you want to move
the cursor or activate something. The mouse senses your motion and your clicks and sends them to
the computer so it can respond appropriately. An ordinary mouse detects motion in the X and Y plane
and acts as a two dimensional controller. It is not well suited for people to use in a 3D graphics
environment. Space Mouse is a professional 3D controller specifically designed for manipulating
objects in a 3D environment. It permits the simultaneous control of all six degrees of freedom -
translation rotation or a combination. . The device serves as an intuitive man-machine interface
The predecessor of the spacemouse was the DLR controller ball. Spacemouse has its
origins in the late seventies when the DLR (German Aerospace Research Establishment) started
research in its robotics and system dynamics division on devices with six degrees of freedom (6 dof)
for controlling robot grippers in Cartesian space. The basic principle behind its construction is
mechatronics engineering and the multisensory concept. The spacemouse has different modes of
operation in which it can also be used as a two-dimensional mouse.
CHAPTER 2
How does computer mouse work?
Mice first broke onto the public stage with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and since
then they have helped to completely redefine the way we use computers. Every day of your
computing life, you reach out for your mouse whenever you want to move your cursor or activate
something. Your mouse senses your motion and your clicks and sends them to the computer so it
can respond appropriately
2.1 Inside a Mouse
The main goal of any mouse is to translate the motion of your hand into signals that the computer
can use. Almost all mice today do the translation using five components:
A ball inside the mouse touches the desktop and rolls when the mouse moves.
1. Two rollers inside the mouse touch the ball. One of the rollers is oriented so that it
detects motion in the X direction, and the other is oriented 90 degrees to the first roller so it
detects motion in the Y direction. When the ball rotates, one or both of these rollers rotate as
well. The following image shows the two white rollers on this mouse:
2. The rollers each connect to a shaft, and the shaft spins a disk with holes in it. When a roller
rolls, its shaft and disk spin. The following image shows the disk:
3. On either side of the disk there is an infrared LED and an infrared sensor. The holes in
the disk break the beam of light coming from the LED so that the infrared sensor sees pulses of
light. The rate of the pulsing is directly related to the speed of the mouse and the distance it
travels.
4. An on-board processor chip reads the pulses from the infrared sensors and turns them
into binary data that the computer can understand. The chip sends the binary data to the
computer through the mouse's cord
In this optomechanical arrangement, the disk moves mechanically, and an optical system
counts pulses of light. On this mouse, the ball is 21 mm in diameter. The roller is 7 mm in diameter.
The encoding disk has 36 holes. So if the mouse moves 25.4 mm (1 inch), the encoder chip detects
41 pulses of light.
Each encoder disk has two infrared LEDs and two infrared sensors, one on each side of the
disk (so there are four LED/sensor pairs inside a mouse). This arrangement allows the processor to
detect the disk's direction of rotation. There is a piece of plastic with a small, precisely located hole
that sits between the encoder disk and each infrared sensor. This piece of plastic provides a window
through which the infrared sensor can "see." The window on one side of the disk is located slightly
higher than it is on the other -- one-half the height of one of the holes in the encoder disk, to be
exact. That difference causes the two infrared sensors to see pulses of light at slightly different
times. There are times when one of the sensors will see a pulse of light when the other does not, and
vice versa.
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CHAPTER 3
MECHATRONICS
The basic idea of Mechatronics engineering is to apply innovative controls to extract new level
of performance from a mechanical device. It means using modem cost effective technology to
improve product and process performance, adaptability and flexibility.
Mechatronics covers a wide range of application areas including consumer product design,
instrumentation, manufacturing methods, computer integration and process and device control. A
typical Mechatronic system picks up signals processes them and generates forces and motion as an
output. In effect mechanical systems are extended and integrated with sensors (to know where
things are), microprocessors (to work out what to do), and controllers (to perform the required
actions).
The word Mechatronics came up describing this fact of having technical systems operating
mechanically with respect to some kernel functions but with more or less electronics supporting the
mechanical parts decisively. Thus we can say that Mechatronics is a blending of Mechanical
engineering,
Electronics engineering and Computing
These three disciplines are linked together with knowledge of management, manufacturing and
marketing.
Mechatronics design covers a wide variety of applications from the physical integration and
miniaturization of electronic controllers with mechanical systems to the control of hydraulically
powered robots in manufacturing and assembling factories.
Computer disk drives are one example of the successful application of Mechatronics
engineering as they are required to provide very fast access precise positioning and robustness
against various disturbances.
An intelligent window shade that opens and closes according to the amount of sun exposure
is another example of a Mechatronics application.
Mechatronics engineering may be involved in the design of equipments and robots for under
water or mining exploration as an alternative to using human beings where this may be dangerous.
In fact Mechatronics engineers can be found working in a range of industries and project areas
including
• Design of data collection, instrumentation and computerized machine tools.
• Intelligent product design for example smart cars and automation for household
transportation and industrial application.
• Design of self-diagnostic machines, which fix problems on their own.
• Medical devices such as life supporting systems, scanners and DNA sequencing
automation.
• Robotics and space exploration equipments.
• Smart domestic consumer goods
• Computer peripherals.
• Security systems.
The aim was to design a new generation of multi sensory lightweight robots. The new sensor
and actuator generation does not only show up a high degree of electronic and processor integration
but also fully modular hardware and software structures. Analog conditioning, power supply and
digital pre-processing are typical subsystems modules of this kind. The 20khz lines connecting all
sensor and actuator systems in a galvanically decoupled way and high speed optical serial data bus
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(SERCOS) are the typical examples of multi sensory and multi actuator concept for the new
generation robot envisioned.
The main sensory developments finished with these criteria have been in the last years:
optically measuring force-torque-sensor for assembly operations. In a more compact form these
sensory systems were integrated inside plastic hollow balls, thus generating 6-degree of freedom
hand controllers (the DLR control balls). The SPACE-MOUSE is the most recent product based on
these ideas.
• stiff strain-gauge based 6 component force-torque-sensor systems.
• miniaturized triangulation based laser range finders.
• integrated inductive joint-torque-sensor for light-weight-robot.
In order to demonstrate the multi sensory design concept, these types of sensors have been
integrated into the multi sensory DLR-gripper, which contains 15 sensory components and to our
knowledge it is the most complex robot gripper built so far (more than 1000 miniaturized electronic
and about 400 mechanical components). It has become a central element of the ROTEX space robot
experiment.
CHAPTER 4
SPACEMOUSE
In every area of technology, one can find automata and systems controllable up to six
degrees of freedom- three translational and three rotational. Industrial robots made up the most
prominent category needing six degrees of freedom by maneuvering six joints to reach any point in
their working space with a desired orientation. Even broader there have been a dramatic explosion in
the growth of 3D computer graphics.
Already in the early eighties, the first wire frame models of volume objects could move
smoothly and interactively using so called knob-boxes on the fastest graphics machines available. A
separate button controlled each of the six degrees of freedom. Next, graphics systems on the market
allowed manipulation of shaded volume models smoothly, i.e. rotate, zoom and shift them and thus
look at them from any viewing angle and position. The scenes become more and more complex; e.g.
with a "reality engine" the mirror effects on volume car bodies are updated several times per second
- a task that needed hours on main frame computers a couple of years ago.
Parallel to the rapid graphics development, we observed a clear trend in the field of
mechanical design towards constructing and modeling new parts in a 3D environment and
transferring the resulting programs to NC machines. The machines are able to work in 5 or 6 degrees
of freedom (dot). Thus, it is no surprise that in the last few years, there are increasing demands for
comfortable 3D control and manipulation devices for these kinds of systems. Despite breathtaking
advancements in digital technology it turned out that digital man- machine interfaces like keyboards
are not well suited for people to use as our sensomotory reactions and behaviors are and will remain
analogous forever.
At the end of the seventies, the DLR (German Aerospace Research Establishment) institute
for robotics and system dynamics started research on devices for the 6-dof control of robot
grippers .in Cartesian space. After lengthy experiments it turned out around 1981 that integrating a
six axis force torque sensor (3 force, 3 torque components) into a plastic hollow ball was the optimal
solution. Such a ball registered the linear and rotational displacements as generated by the forces/
torques of a human hand, which were then computationally transformed into translational /
rotational motion speeds.
The first force torque sensor used was based upon strain gauge technology, integrated into
a plastic hollow ball. DLR had the basic concept centre of a hollow ball handle approximately
coinciding with the measuring centre of an integrated 6 dof force / torque sensor patented in Europe
and US.
From 1982-1985, the first prototype applications showed that DLR's control ball was not only
excellently suited as a control device for robots, but also for the first 3D-graphics system that came
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onto the market at that time. Wide commercial distribution was prevented by the high sales price of
about $8,000 per unit. It took until 1985 for the DLR's developer group to succeed in designing a
much cheaper optical measuring system.
The new system used 6 one-dimensional position detectors. This system received a
worldwide patent. The basic principle is as follows. The measuring system consists of an inner and an
outer part. The measuring arrangement in the inner ring is composed of the LED, a slit and
perpendicular to the slit on the opposite side of the ring a linear position sensitive detector (PSD).
The slit / LED combination is mobile against the remaining system. Six such systems (rotated by 60
degrees each) are mounted in a plane, whereby the slits alternatively are vertical and parallel to the
plane. The ring with PSD's is fixed inside the outer part and connected via springs with the LED-slit-
basis. The springs bring the inner part back to a neutral position when no forces / torque are
exerted: There is a particularly simple and unique. This measuring system is drift-free and not
subject to aging effects.
The original hopes of the developers group that the license companies might be able to
redevelop devices towards much lower manufacturing costs did not materialize. On the other hand,
with passing of time, other technologically comparable ball systems appeared on the market
especially in USA. They differed only in the type of measuring system. Around 1990, terms like
cyberspace and virtual reality became popular. However, the effort required to steer oneself around
in a virtual world using helmet and glove tires one out quickly. Movements were measured by
electromagnetic or ultrasonic means, with the human head having problems in controlling
translational speeds. In addition, moving the hand around in free space leads to fairly fast fatigue.
Thus a redesign of the ball idea seemed urgent.
With the developments explained in the previous sections, DLR's development group started
a transfer company, SPACE CONTROL and addressed a clear goal: To redesign the control ball idea
with its unsurpassed opto electronic measuring system and optimize it thus that to reduce
manufacturing costs to a fraction of its previous amount and thus allow it to approach the pricing
level of high quality PC mouse at least long-term.
The new manipulation device would also be able to function as a conventional mouse and
appear like one, yet maintain its versatility in a real workstation design environment. The result of an
intense one-year's work was the European SpaceMouse, in the USA it is especially in the European
market place. But end of 93, DLR and SPACE CONTROL jointly approached LOGITECH because of
their wide expertise with pointing devices for computers to market and sell Magellan in USA and Asia.
The wear resistant and drift free opto electronic, 6 component measuring system was optimized to
place all the electronics, including the analogous signal processing, AT conversion, computational
evaluation and power supply on only one side of a tiny SMD- board inside Magellan's handling cap. It
only needs a few milliamperes of current supplied through the serial port of any PC or standard
mouse interface. It does not need a dedicated power supply. The electronic circuitry using a lot of
time multiplex technology was simplified by a factor of five, compared to the former control balls
mentioned before. The unbelievably tedious mechanical optimization, where the simple adjustment of
the PSD's with respect to the slits played a central role in its construction, finally led to 3 simple
injection moulding parts, namely the basic housing, a cap handle with the measuring system inside
and the small nine button keyboard system. The housing, a punched steel plate provides Magellan
with the necessary weight for stability; any kind of metal cutting was avoided. The small board inside
the cap (including a beeper) takes diverse mechanical functions as well. For example, it contains the
automatically mountable springs as well as overload protection. The springs were optimized in the
measuring system so that they no longer show hysteresis; nevertheless different stiffness of the cap
are realizable by selection of appropriate springs. Ergonomically, Magellan was constructed as flat as
can be so that the human hand may rest on it without fatigue
Slight pressures of the fingers on the cap of Magellan is sufficient for generating deflections
in X, Y, and Z planes, thus shifting a cursor or flying a 3D graphics object translationally through
space. Slight twists of the cap cause rotational motions of a 3D graphics object around the
corresponding axes. Pulling the cap in the Z direction corresponds to zooming function. Moving the
cap in X or Y direction drags the horizontally and vertically respectively on the screen. Twisting the
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cap over one of the main axes or any combination of them rotates the object over the corresponding
axis on the screen.
The user can handle the object on the screen a he were holding it in his own left hand and
helping the right hand to undertake the constructive actions on specific points lines or surfaces or
simply by unconsciously bringing to the front of appropriate perspective view of any necessary detail
of the object.
With the integration of nine additional key buttons any macro functions can be mapped onto
one of the keys thus allowing the user most frequent function to be called by a slight finger touch
from the left hand. The device has special features like dominant mode. It uses those degrees of
freedom in which the greatest magnitude is generated. So defined movements can be created.
Connection to the computer is through a 3m cable (DB9 female) and platform adapter if necessary.
Use of handshake signals (RTSSCTS) are recommended for the safe operation of the spacemouse.
Without these handshake signals loss of data may occur.
Additional signal lines are provided to power the Magellan (DTS&RTS). Thus, no additional
power supply is needed. Flying an object in 6 dof is done intuitively without any strain. In a similar
way, flying oneself through a virtual world is just fun. Touching the keys results in either the usual
menu selection, mode selection or the pickup of 3D objects.
CHAPTER 5
MAGELLAN: FEATURES AND BENEFITS
5.1 Features
5.2 Benefits
As the user positions the 3D objects with the Magellan device the necessity of going back
and forth to the menu is eliminated. Drawing times is reduced by 20%-30% increasing overall
productivity. With the Magellan device improved design comprehension is possible and earlier
detection of design errors contributing faster time to market and cost savings in the design process.
Any computer whose graphics power allows to update at least 5 frames per second of the designed
scenery, and which has a standard RS232 interface, can make use of the full potential of Magellan
spacemouse. In 3D applications Magellan is used in conjunction with a 2D mouse. The user positions
an object with spacemouse while working on the object using a mouse. We can consider it as a
workman holding an object in his left hand and working on it with a tool in his right hand. Now
Magellan spacemouse is becoming something for standard input device for interactive motion control
of 3D graphics objects in its working environment and for many other applications.
CHAPTER 6
FUTURE SCOPE AND CONCLUSION
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Magellan's predecessor, DLR's control ball, was a key element of the first real robot inspace,
ROTEX- (3), which was launched in April 93 with space shuttle COLUMBIA inside a rack of the
spacelab-D2. The robot was directly teleoperated by the astronauts using the control ball, the same
way remotely controlled from ground (on-line and off line) implying "predictive" stereographics. As
an example, the ground operator with one of the two balls or Magellans steered the robot's gripper in
the graphics presimulation, while with the second device he was able to move the whole scenery
around smoothly in 6 dot Predictive graphics simulation together with the above mentioned man
machine interaction allowed for the compensation of overall signal delays up to seven seconds, the
most spectacular accomplishment being the grasping of a floating object in space from the ground.
Since then, ROTEX has often been declared as the first real "virtual reality" application.
A most intuitive controlling device would be a system that can be instructed by watching and
imitating the human user, using the hand as the major controlling element. This would be a very
comfortable interface that allows the user to move a robot system in the most natural way. This is
called the visual space mouse. The system of the visual space mouse can be divided into two main
parts: image processing and robot control. The role of image processing is to perform operations on
a video signal, received by a video camera, to extract desired information out of the video signal. The
role of robot control is to transform electronic commands into movements of the manipulator.
6.2 CONCLUSION
The graphics simulation and manipulation of 3D volume objects and virtual worlds and their
combination e.g. with real information as contained in TV images (multi-media) is not only
meaningful for space technology, but will strongly change the whole world of manufacturing and
construction technology, including other areas like urban development, chemistry, biology, and
entertainment. For all these applications we believe there is no other man- machine interface
technology comparable to Magellan in its simplicity and yet high precision. It is used for 3D
manipulations in 6 dof, but at the same time may function as a conventional 2D mouse.
REFERENCES
(4)www.howstuffworks.com
(5) www.seminartopics.info
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