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