Design and analysis of a miniature self-decoupling six-dimensional force/moment sensor

In recent years, the demand for force feedback with high precision, size miniaturization and operation simplicity in many fields, such as surgical robot, unmanned aerial vehicle, flexible manipulator, and etc., has become increasingly prominent. In this paper, a miniature columnar six-dimensional force/moment sensor is proposed for the suggestion of a method of miniature sensor design and analysis. A novel design scheme for the column module is proposed for the elastomer structure of the sensor, and the external size of the sensor is greatly reduced on the basis of existing researches, which can effectively make it an important part of the final integrated system of some small equipment that require force feedback. Besides, the sensor with the concave hexagonal structured columns breaks through the limitations of layered sensors, and has self-decoupling performance, which avoids cumbersome decoupling algorithms and improves the system response speed. In addition, based on finite element modeling and simulation, the performance study and design optimization of the elastomer are carried out to improve the sensitivity of the sensor. By experimental verification, the sensor designed in this study can achieve the force feedback range of +/- 5N, the moment feedback range of +/- 10Nmm, and the coupling output error is less than 0.9%.