Development of a six-axis force/moment sensor with rectangular taper beams for an intelligent robot

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a six-axis force/moment sensor with rectangular taper beams for an intelligent robot's wrist and ankle. In order to accurately push and pull an object with an intelligent robot's hand, and in order to safely walk with an intelligent robot's foot, the robot's wrist and ankle should measure three forces Fx, Fy, and Fz, and three moments Mx, My, and Mz simultaneously from the mounted six-axis force/moment sensor to the intelligent robot's wrist and ankle. Unfortunately, the developed six-axis force/moment sensor utilized in other industrial fields is not proper for an intelligent robot's wrist and ankle in the size and the rated output of the six-axis force/moment sensor. In this paper, the structure of a six-axis force/moment sensor with rectangular taper beams was newly modeled for an intelligent robot's wrist and ankle, and the sensing elements were designed by using the derived equations, following which the six-axis force/moment sensor was fabricated by attaching strain-gages on the sensing elements. Moreover, the characteristic test of the developed sensor was carried out by using the six-component force/moment sensor testing machine. The rated outputs from the derived equations agree well with those from the experiments. The interference error of the sensor is less than 2.87%.