Contact force sensor for artificial hands with a digital interface for a controller

摘要

A force sensor. for use with an artificial hand, needs to be small, robust, low power, cheap and easily interfaced to a controller using digital techniques. The prototype featured in this paper uses capacitance effects to measure the strain on an elastic polymer foam. Low power consumption results in a device that can be supplied from a miniature battery thereby requiring only signal wires to the controller. A non-linear model accurately describes the characteristic of the sensor, requiring the estimation of only three parameters. The device has been tested up to 20 N but is capable of measuring greater forces. [References: 11]