Design of Inexpensive Joint Torque Sensor for Legged Robots using Float Differential Mechanism

Abstract

This paper proposes an inexpensive torque sensor using float differential (FD) mechanism for legged robot. Stability indicators like ZMP are provided by floor reaction force. Though most of conventional force sensors for measuring floor reaction force have complicated structure and are expensive. Thus, we designed inexpensive torque sensor using FD mechanism and FSR, cheap pressure sensor. In the proposing design, the sensor can be mounted on outside of RC servo case. In this paper, the design and fabrication of the sensor mechanism and evaluation of its sensing of torque and force vector are shown.