A Lever-Type Method of Strain Exposure for Disk F-Shaped Torque Sensor Design

Disk-shaped torque sensors are widely used in robotic joints and wheel driving. However, in terms of conventional spoke-type geometries, there is always a trade-off between sensitivity and stiffness, because their strain exposure depends upon a bending deformation mode which causes strain nonuniformity. This paper presents a lever-type method of strain exposure that performs a uniaxial tension and compression deformation mode to optimize the strain uniformity and improve the trade-off. Moreover, on the basis of this approach, the proposed disk F-shaped torque sensor enjoys has axial thinness, easy installation of strain gauges and flexible customization. The simulation and experimental results have validated the basic design idea.

Design and Manufacturing of an Ultra-Low-Cost Custom Torque Sensor for Robotics

This article describes a new, very low-cost torque sensor. It was designed to obtain a geometric shape suitable for very affordable manufacturing by machining. The torque sensor was developed under the principle of measurement by strain gauges. It has been designed in order to make manufacturing operations as simple as possible. Optimization was achieved through finite element analysis. Three test sensors for 1, 5, and 20 Nm were designed and machined. Calibration of the three sensors has been carried out obtaining excellent results. An analysis of the dimensional quality of the product and associated costs demonstrates that manufacturing is possible with very simple machining operations, standard tools, and economic equipment.

Towards Scalable Strain Gauge-Based Joint Torque Sensors

During recent decades, strain gauge-based joint torque sensors have been commonly used to provide high-fidelity torque measurements in robotics. Although measurement of joint torque/force is often required in engineering research and development, the gluing and wiring of strain gauges used as torque sensors pose difficulties during integration within the restricted space available in small joints. The problem is compounded by the need for a scalable geometric design to measure joint torque. In this communication, we describe a novel design of a strain gauge-based mono-axial torque sensor referred to as square-cut torque sensor (SCTS), the significant features of which are high degree of linearity, symmetry, and high scalability in terms of both size and measuring range. Most importantly, SCTS provides easy access for gluing and wiring of the strain gauges on sensor surface despite the limited available space. We demonstrated that the SCTS was better in terms of symmetry (clockwise and counterclockwise rotation) and more linear. These capabilities have been shown through finite element modeling (ANSYS) confirmed by observed data obtained by load testing experiments. The high performance of SCTS was confirmed by studies involving changes in size, material and/or wings width and thickness. Finally, we demonstrated that the SCTS can be successfully implementation inside the hip joints of miniaturized hydraulically actuated quadruped robot-MiniHyQ. This communication is based on work presented at the 18th International Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots (CLAWAR).

Development of Torque Sensor with High Sensitivity for Joint of Robot Manipulator Using 4-Bar Linkage Shape

The torque sensor is used to measure the joint torque of a robot manipulator. Previous research showed that the sensitivity and the stiffness of torque sensors have trade-off characteristics. Stiffness has to be sacrificed to increase the sensitivity of the sensor. In this research, a new torque sensor with high sensitivity (TSHS) is proposed in order to resolve this problem. The key idea of the TSHS comes from its 4-bar linkage shape in which the angular displacement of a short link is larger than that of a long link. The sensitivity of the torque sensor with a 4-bar link shape is improved without decreasing stiffness. Optimization techniques are applied to maximize the sensitivity of the sensor. An actual TSHS is constructed to verify the validity of the proposed mechanism. Experimental results show that the sensitivity of TSHS can be increased 3.5 times without sacrificing stiffness.

Development of a one-body optical torque sensor for rehabilitation robotic systems

This paper proposes a one-body optical torque sensor. The proposed sensor has advantages of anti-slip and low cost due to the simple one-body structure. Simulations for stress and strains analysis are accurately performed. To demonstrate the performance of proposed design, experiments were also carried out to compare it with a commercial force/torque sensor (Mini45, ATI).