Design and Analysis of Joint Torque Sensor for Safe Human-Robotic Collaboration

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the protection and consistency during the physical human-robot collaboration to avoid serious injury. A low-cost torque sensor design is proposed to detect and measure the collision between the robot and human operator. The proposed perforated spoke type structure shifted the high-stresses location and modified the dispersal of the stresses. Moreover, the sensor response to the dynamic load and sensitivity is improved. The optimal parameters are selected based on the finite element analysis. A series of simulations were performed to validate the performance of the proposed torque sensor. The results show that the proposed design provides better performance compared to a non-perforated spoke type torque sensor.