Touchwaves, a Dutch company building wearable haptic systems for aerospace and defence, has been selected by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems through its Blue Magic Netherlands venturing initiative. The company is one of six companies chosen out of a pitch event focused on the Dutch aerospace and defence community. What’s most interesting, however, is their origin story that took them out of academia and into a drone cockpit.
The roots of the technology go back more than a decade. Touchwaves co-founder Martin Romero said that the company spun out of the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research or TNO, a group focused on health, safety, and digital security. His cofounder and CEO, Charlotte Kjellander, had been developing wearables at TNO for more than 15 years, and these use cases, essentially haptics to help folks in high-pressure situations understand data more completely. The problem, said Romero, then was that the components and technology were not ready.
The goal was to add haptic feedback to complex data. When a pilot pulled back on their stick, instead of a simple dial spinning in front of them they would feel vibrations up their back. If they dove, the reverse happened. Targeting systems could be wired to shoulder-mounted haptics to warn of incoming aircraft and warnings could be felt and not just heard.
But there was one problem: the tech was too bulky.
“The right technology to integrate into these environments was just not available,” he said. The systems strapped to the pilot’s body and were as heavy as early VR gear, making it a difficult sell in situations where mobility and weight were an issue. Over ten years later, however, things have changed. Today, said Romero, printed electronics, lightweight motors, and stretchable materials make it possible to build the system into garments weighing less than 200 grams.
For Touchwaves, that turns haptics into a wearable battlefield interface. Soldiers and pilots do not need another screen. They need information they can understand instantly while their eyes and ears are already overloaded. The technology adds touch as another channel rather than replacing what pilots already see or hear.
“We are not going to replace the visual or auditory alarms that the pilot already has,” Romero said. “But on top of that, we are going to give them this tactile communication.” In one example, if a drone is being targeted by an interceptor, the operator may see a warning on a screen but not immediately understand the direction of the threat. As mentioned before, Touchwaves can deliver a tactile cue on one side of the body, allowing the pilot to react faster and manoeuvre away.
The strongest validation, Romero said, has come from operators themselves. Two weeks before we spoke, Romero met a Ukrainian pilot and explained the system at an event. “After a minute and a half, the pilot said, ‘Oh, I need this,’” Romero recalled. “It was very, very clear.” The pilot told him the amount of information coming through screens was so great that he was “most probably” going to miss something, and then began suggesting other applications for the technology.
“The amount of information that the operator is getting is increasing with AI and all the new technologies,” Romero said. “But the performance of the human somehow is still the same.” Touchwaves is trying to make the operator’s life easier by moving some of that information onto their other senses.
