Choose D-BOX
You want high-frequency texture and impact feel added to an existing seat or rig, a mature authored-content library, and an installation that does not change the footprint of what you already have.
Compare · D-BOX
Different categories,
not different grades.
D-BOX makes haptic actuators — an array under a seat or rig, each with a short stroke, working across a wide frequency range. The PDK is a parallel platform that moves the entire rig through six axes. Both are legitimate. They are not the same product doing the same job better or worse.
What each one is
Texture under a seat,
or attitude of
the whole rig.
A short-stroke actuator array is very good at high-frequency texture — surface detail, engine character, impact transients — delivered straight into the seat. A parallel platform is very good at attitude and translation of the whole cockpit, which is what carries sustained load cues and the sense of where the vehicle is. The real question is not which is better. It is which of those two things you are buying.
Side by side
The comparison that is actually meaningful.
| D-BOX | ARK PDK | |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Haptic actuator array — two, three or four linear actuators under the seat or rig | 6-DOF Stewart-Gough parallel platform, whole rig moves |
| Axes | Published as 3-DOF — heave, pitch, roll; a Haptic Expander adds further axes, as published | Six: surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, yaw |
| Stroke | Approximately 1.5 inches per actuator | Published per axis, nominal (single-axis) only |
| Actuation | Patented nut-ball-screw, electromechanical, no oil | Direct-drive BLDC, no transmission of any kind |
| Frequency range | 0–100 Hz actuator frequency range, as published | Not published |
| Content | A large library of hand-authored effects | No effect library. Motion comes from telemetry or from your own code. |
| Interface | Proprietary ecosystem | Open — six-axis pose over UDP |
Figures in the other column are read from the manufacturer's published material, with source and retrieval date. Manufacturers revise specifications — if one here is out of date, tell us and it gets corrected.
Sources: D-BOX — G5 technology, www.d-box.com, retrieved 2026-09-13; D-BOX — FIA / Professional certifications, www.d-box.com, retrieved 2026-09-13; D-BOX — G5 Haptic System spec sheet 190-986-0050-EN6, April 2025, www.d-box.com, retrieved 2026-09-13.
Which one you want
Two different purchases.
Choose the PDK
You need attitude and translation of the whole cockpit — sustained cornering load, yaw as the rear steps out, the platform going where the vehicle went — and an open interface to drive it from your own stack.
Or neither exclusively
They are not mutually exclusive in principle. A platform for attitude with tactile transducers for texture is a real configuration, and we would rather say that than pretend one product covers every frequency.
Keep reading
What datasheets leave out
The method behind this page, applied to us before anyone else.
MOZA HMA150
Another four-post arrangement, and where the kinematics diverge.
Motion cueing
Which frequencies a platform delivers and which it substitutes.