A six-component force/moment sensor with simple structure and high performance

This paper presents a novel six-component force/moment sensor for measuring F-x, F-y, F-z and moments M-x, M-y, M-z simultaneously. In order to minimize interference errors and to construct easily, the sensor adopts only eight thin plate beams as sensing elements and each beam is attached to only one strain gauge, making the total number of plate beams and strain gauges much fewer than previous ones known to the authors. Its operating principle and measuring circuits are described, and the decoupling algorithm is derived. Finite Element analysis (FEA) and measured calibration demonstrate that the sensor bears merits such as small crosstalk, high sensitivity, and fine linearity.