Development of ankle joint torque sensor for measuring ankle torque of wearable walking assist robot

Abstract

In this study, for leg rehabilitation, we designed and fabricated an ankle joint torque sensor that can measure the torque applied to the ankle joint of a walking assist robot. For this purpose, we modeled the structure of an ankle joint torque sensor that can measure the torque applied to the ankle by fixing the ankle area The rated torque of the torque sensor was calculated by simulation, and then the size of the sensing part of the torque sensor was determined using a computer program. Four strain gauges were attached to the sensing part of the torque sensor. To fabricate a torque sensor, a Wheatstone bridge was constructed using them. The characteristics of the fabricated ankle joint torque sensor were tested; consequently, the reproducibility error and the nonlinearity error were 0.04% and 0.03%, respectively. Therefore, the developed ankle joint torque sensor is believed to accurately measure the torque that is applied to the ankle joint attached to the ankle part of the walking robot. ? ICROS 2018.