[Andrew Blair]

^(Rickertsen2, you got your copy paste screwed up. I think Ogre said that, not me)

Well, even if it can't be done legally, it would still be interesting. First of all, I mean actual, dynamic force feedback that helps show the driver where he's being pushed. Accelerometers would be the device of choice, placed 90 degrees perpendicular to eachother, so as to provide x-vector and y-vector. In the joysticks, there would simply be a small motor attached to the appropriate axis via a belt. When you got hit from the side, the x-axis would jerk accordingly in parrallel. Programming it directly would be very simple, accelerometer_x=x_motor, I think. However, I would think some kind of filter would need to be in place in order to keep the feedback from actually controlling the robot on it's own, to distinguish human inputs from ones just sent to the feedback system. As for it jerking out of your hands, probably not, as it would be a small motor with a belt that would slip against much backpressure.

I'm wondering if you can get power from the joystick outputs/inputs. It would seem to me that you could run a small, albeit small motor off 9 volts, 1.5 amps. Actually, thats quite a bit of power, if we could get to it. If I remember correctly you can run LEDs from them. Correct me if I'm wrong please!