Fingertip Force Sensor

Sensor Review

ISSN: 0260-2288

Article publication date: 1 March 2004

79

Keywords

Citation

Rigelsford, J. (2004), "Fingertip Force Sensor", Sensor Review, Vol. 24 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2004.08724aad.016

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Fingertip Force Sensor

Fingertip Force Sensor

Applicant: Agency of Industrial Science and Technology; Ministry of International Trade and Industry; and K. Nagata, JapanPatent number: US6,622,575Publication date: 23 September 2003Title: Fingertip-mounted six-axis force sensor

Keywords: Sensors, Patents

A six-axis force sensor mounted on the fingertip of a human is presented. The invention is for analysing a grasping operation made by the human and detecting a contact force during the grasping operation so that a robot can conduct the same grasping operation in accordance with measured data.

It comprises a fingerstall into which a fingertip of a human is inserted, an elastic component connected and fixed to the fingerstall, adapted to distort in response to specific force components including fingertip contact forces and contact moments, and equipped with a distortion detecting device for detecting force components in three axial directions. Distortion of the elastic component produced in response to fingertip contact forces and contact moments exerted onto an object by the human fingertip are detected by the distortion detecting device and converted into an electrical signal that is processed to calculate the fingertip contact forces. Such a sensor is also applicable to a force display device that gives the human a sensation of actual existence of virtual data stored in a computer.

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