Torque Sensor for Robot Joint Control | Cobot Torque Sensor | FUTEK

Versatile and adaptive robotic arms have the benefit of increasing manufacturing productivity by automating and performing repetitive tasks 24x7. These arms are often designed to be trainable or operate as a team as cooperative robots (cobot/co-robot). Driving these arms in their joints are servo or stepper motors. In addition to monitoring shaft position, engineers need to monitor joint torque output for smooth, steady robot motion control. By combining these motors with a reaction torque sensor, control loops can be implemented for smooth, autonomous operation.

FUTEK reaction torque sensors' basic principle is the resistance change of strain gauges. The strain gauge bridge circuit output is connected to a signal conditioner and digitized so it can be integrated with the robot control system.

Robot joint torque sensors are offered in several geometries, low profile, disk-shaped, and compact designs, and can be customized to meet your project specs with volume applications for collaborative and medical robots. The low profile characteristics of FUTEK's torque sensors make it possible to fully integrate into joints and drives without taking up a significant amount of additional mounting space or extra weight.

FUTEK also customizes lightweight low-profile embedded high-precision harmonic strain wave gearing drive torque sensors for closed-loop feedback with high flexibility on geometry and design. The demand for collaborative robots (aka Cobots) is growing fast and cobots became a viable solution for the severe labor shortage that stresses supply chains and hinders economic growth. However, Cobots must also work safely alongside humans. FUTEK’s engineers developed a cobot torque sensor that provides functional safety in human-robot collaboration with increased accuracy and speed.