Optimized design method of three-axis force sensor for robot fingers

A structural optimization method of a three-axis force sensor for robot fingers is proposed. To achieve dexterous hands like human hands, it is important to measure the forces loaded on robot fingers. We have been developing three-axis force sensors that can detect three-axis forces simultaneously with strain gauges. This sensor is small and can be produced inexpensively. However, because the proposed sensor has been newly devised, there is neither a design basis for it nor an accumulation of know-how. Therefore, we suggest a method to optimize the sensor structure using design of experiments and finite element analysis. In the proposed method, the approximated expressions of the objective function and the constraints are generated by the response surface method and FEA. The sequential quadratic programming method is used to optimize the design variables. As a result, a force sensor is designed the robot fingers that is more effective than the prototype sensor, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified.