In the exploitation of a magnetic robot hand, it is extremely important to develop a gap sensor of high and stable performance for the relative motion in three dimensional space between the held body and the magnetic robot hand.
In this study, first, a prototype gap sensor system for the instrument of the gap between a magnetic robot hand and a spherical magnetic body held and transferred without contact point is developed. The prototype gap sensor system consists of a magnetic flux sensor, an exciting current sensor and a data base calculation system. The data base calculation system is constructed with the instrument data obtained by the beforehand experiments among the gap, the magnetic flux and the exciting current. The magnetic robot hand is composed with the prototype gap sensor system and an electromagnet. Second, the experiments of the non-contact hold and transfer control of the spherical magnetic body have been carried out, and it is confirmed that the spherical magnetic body can be held and transferred successfully without contact point by the magnetic robot hand with the prototype gap sensor system.