This paper presents an analysis of the vibrational behavior of a deep groove ball bearing with a structurally integrated force sensor. The miniaturized force sensor, accommodated within a slot on the bearing’s outer ring, provides on-line condition monitoring capability to the bearing. Analytical and finite element models were developed to predict the sensor output due to bearing dynamic load a...

We present a novel tactile sensor, which is applied for dextrous grasping with a simple robot gripper. The hardware novelty consists of an array of capacitive sensors, which couple to the object by means of little brushes of fibers. These sensor elements are very sensitive (with a threshold of about 5 mN) but robust enough not to be damaged during grasping. They yield two types of dynamical tac...

In order to grasp and manipulate an object controllably and dexterously with a multifingered hand of robot, the sensing of fingertip force is required. To these operation, for making the controlability higher and making force sensor be proof against unexpected collisions or weights, not only the sensor’s sensibility but also its stiffness are desired as high as possible. For sensing a force act...

This paper investigates the design optimisation of a magnetic field based soft tactile sensor, comprised of a magnet and Hall effect module separated by an elastomer. The aim was to minimise sensitivity of the output force with respect to the input magnetic field; this was achieved by varying the geometry and material properties. Finite element simulations determined the magnetic field and stru...

This paper presents two ways of decreasing the assembly uncertainty of micro assembly tasks through further or optimized integration of sensors within a size adapted assembly system. To accomplish this, the orientation of the part to be placed with respect to the vision sensor is changed. This was possible through a new gripper which was able to overcome the restrictions placed on the system by...

An in situ measurement of micro-friction torque in MEMS gas bearings, which has been a challenging research topic for years, is realized by a system designed in this paper. In the system, a high accuracy micro-force sensor and an electronically-driven table are designed, fabricated and utilized. With appropriate installation of the sensor and bearings on the table, the engine rotor can be drive...

The force sensor is key to the performance of atomic force microscopy (AFM). Nowadays, most atomic force microscopes use micromachined force sensors made from silicon, but piezoelectric quartz sensors are being applied at an increasing rate, mainly in vacuum. These self-sensing force sensors allow a relatively easy upgrade of a scanning tunneling microscope to a combined scanning tunneling/atom...

Magnetic resonance imaging provides superior imaging capability because of unmatched soft tissue contrast and inherent three-dimensional visualization. Force sensing in robot-assisted systems is crucial for providing tactile feedback and measuring tissue interaction forces in needle-based percutaneous procedures in MRI. To address the issues imposed by electromagnetic compatibility in the high-...

To solve the problem of coverage performance assessment, this study proposes an evaluation method based on the trajectory of the target, which is applicable to universal sensor networks, including both heterogeneous and homogeneous sensor networks. Different from the traditional Voronoi algorithm, the proposed Improved Coverage Force Division (ICFD) plans a coverage force division map whichscal...

This paper investigates a novel position sensor based force reflection framework for multi degrees-of-freedom bilateral teleoperation systems in unstructured environments. The conventional position sensor based force reflection method, known as position error feedback, may generate grossly inaccurate force reflection directions during collisions involving the slave manipulator links. The propos...