Abstract
This paper describes a 3 DoF MR-compatible haptic interface which can be used to investigate human brain mechanisms of voluntary finger movements. The newly developed device is built of non-ferromagnetic materials to avoid safety hazards and uses MR-compatible sensors and actuators to not disturb the image quality. The selected parallel kinematics not only guarantees a stiff construction and reduces inertia of moving parts, but also avoids time-varying motion artifacts originating from moving active components. Geometric parameters of the device are selected to optimize manipulability and to cover the workspace of pointing movements using the index finger up to small reaching movements with the arm. Finally, performance indices like transmission-quality, force, velocity, and acceleration capability are evaluated for the presented device.