Capacitive 6-Axis Force/Torque(F/T) sensor

  Joint torque sensor is installed into robot’s each joint for measuring accurate joint torque value. It’s a necessary sensor for robots to do accurate torque control or collision detection when collaborating with human. 6-axis force/torque(F/T) sensor enables measuring six orthogonal F/T components at a material point on the sensor’s surface. It can be installed at the wrist of robot manipulator, or at the fingertip of robot gripper and robot hand.

  Using the capacitance sensing principle, sensing part of the sensor can be designed as a single printed circuit board and a ground plate. It makes possible to build a lightweight F/T sensor integrating all electronic components with very simple manufacturing and assembly processes and at an extremely low cost. Therefore, its mass production and customization will also be possible. As shown in the figure, various sizes of sensors including world’s smallest 6-axis F/T sensor were developed.

Robotic Applications

  6-axis F/T sensor are used in a variety of robotic applications such as industrial robot, service robot, rehabilitation robot, medical robot, military robot, game and entertainment, virtual reality(VR)/augmented reality(AR), and so on.

  As presented in the figures, the developed 6-axis F/T sensor was installed to the robot hand, which can conduct force-feedback controlled tasks such as part insertion and object recognition. The sensor is also applied to the robot arm(indy7). Therefore, the stability enhanced force controlled system is able to conduct the hand-guiding control as well as deburring, polishing and grinding process performed in industrial robotic process.

Commercialization

(“RFT Series”, Ref: http://www.robotous.com/forcetorquesensor).

Publications

• Jaeyun Kim, Yong Bum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Seung Yeon Lee, Jae Yoon Sim, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Performance Enhancement of Capacitive-Type Torque Sensor by Using Resonant Circuit”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2022, pp. 560-569.

• Yong Bum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Seung Yeon Lee, Jaeyun Kim, Gitae Kang, Uikyum Kim, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “6-Axis Force/Torque Sensor With a Novel Autonomous Weight Compensating Capability for Robotic Applications”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020, pp. 6686-6693.

• Dong-Yeop Seok, Yong Bum Kim, Seung Yeon Lee, Jaeyun Kim, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Ultra–Thin Joint Torque Sensor With Enhanced Sensitivity for Robotic Application”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020, pp. 5873-5880.

• Dong-Yeop Seok, Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Seung Yeon Lee, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Compensation of Environmental Influences on Sensorized-Forceps for Practical Surgical Tasks”, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2019, pp. 2031-2037.

• Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Jinho So, Yoon Haeng Lee, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Torque Sensor Embedded Actuator Module for Robotic Applications”, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2018, pp. 1662-1672.

• Uikyum Kim, Yong Bum Kim, Jinho So, Dong-Yeop Seok, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Sensorized Surgical Forceps for Robotic-Assisted Minimally Invasive Surgery”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2018, pp. 9604-9613.

• Uikyum Kim, Yong Bum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Jinho So, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “A Surgical Palpation Probe With 6-Axis Force/Torque Sensing Capability for Minimally Invasive Surgery”, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 2018, pp. 2755-5765.

• Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok; Jinho So, Yoon Haeng Lee, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “A novel POWERPACK for robotic application, integrated torque sensor, harmonic drive and motor”, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2017.

• Uikyum Kim, Yong Bum Kim, Jinho So, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Design of a miniature 6-axis force/torque sensor for robotic applications”, 14th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), 2017.

• Uikyum Kim, Dong-Hyuk Lee, Yong Bum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Jinho So, Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “S-surge: Novel portable surgical robot with multiaxis force-sensing capability for minimally invasive surgery”, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2017, pp. 1717-1727.

• Uikyum Kim, Dong-Hyuk Lee, Yong Bum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, and Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “A Novel 6-Axis Force/Torque Sensor for Robotic Applications”, IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, Online Published, 2016.

• Dong-Hyuk Lee, Uikyum Kim, Hosang Jung, and Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “A Capacitive Type Novel 6-Axis Force/Torque Sensor for Robotic Applications”, IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 16, no. 8, pp. 2290–2299, 2016.

• Yong Bum kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Jinho So, Hyouk Ryeol Cho, “A Novel Capacitive type Torque Sensor for Robotic Applications”, IEEE Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics (AIM), 2016, pp. 993-998.

• Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, Jinho So, and Hyouk Ryeol Choi, "Design of Novel Capacitive type Torque Sensor for Robotic Applications",  International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAI), 2016, pp. 256-258.

• 김의겸, 최혁렬, “정전용량형 6축 힘/토크 센서 기술”, 한국로봇공학회지, 봄호 pp. 33–37, 2015.

• Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, and Hyouk Ryeol Choi, “Design and realization of capacitive-type torque sensor decoupling the external interferences”, 2015년 한국센서학회 종합학술대회, 2015.

Project

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• • 중소기업청 
  Development of Capacitive-type 6-axis Force/Torque Sensor(2015.06.01-2016.05.31) 
• • 산업통상자원부 
  Development of Capacitive-type 6-axis Force/Torque Sensor(2015.09.01-2016.08.31) 

Researcher

Seung Yeon Lee, Jae Yoon Sim, Jae Yoon Shim, Yoono Kim, Eui Chan Kim