2016 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots and Ambient Intelligence (URAl)

August 19�22, 2016 at Sofitel Xian on Renmin Square, Xian, China

Design of Novel Capacitive type Torque Sensor for

Robotic Applications
Yong Bum Kim, Uikyum Kim, Dong-Yeop Seok, JinHo So, and Hyouk Ryeol Choi*, Member,IEEE
School of Mechanical Engineering, Sungkyunkwan University,
ChunChun-dong 300, Jangan-gu, Suwon-si, Kyunggi-do, 440-746, South Korea
(E-mail: hrchoi@me.skku.ac.kr)

Ahstract-This paper introduces a novel capacitive type torque

sensor. The developed torque sensor measures single axis torque
value by using two capacitance transducing cells. To make a
linear relation between the capacitance and the deformation, the PCB board
shape of flexure hinge is considered to be deformed constantly.
Also, the nonlinear curve fitting method is used to fit the
Electrode(
capacitance linearly. Finally, the performance of the sensor is
verified in reference to a commercial torque sensor
Keywo rds-List keywords here. No more than 5.

l. INTRODUCTION
It is essential to get the ForcelTorque (abbreviated as FIT
in this paper) information in industry and robotic field. This
information makes automated system and safety system more
reliable and precise [?J-[?].The FIT information represents
three orthogonal forces (Fx, Fy and Fz) and three orthogonal
torques (Tx, Ty and Tz) and the 6 axis FIT sensor measures
Fig. l. Schematics for a 6 axis FfT elements and the torque element for
these information at a certain point on the plane. Typically, torque sensor
a 6 axis FIT sensor is often attached on the end effector of
multi degree-of-freedom (DOF) robot such as industrial robots Ground plate Ground plate
(Electrode( -»
and the service robots. By attaching a 6 axis FIT sensor, the (Elect",de(·))

robot can perform the delicate tasks in force feedback system.

Electrode(+)

2] S {J
Elcctrodc(+)
However, the price of the sensor is too high to be used widely
in industry and robotic field. Moreover, only attaching a 6 PCB bo · '
D D � B ��

axis FIT sensor on the end effector is not enough to detect Electrode(+) Elcctrodc(+)

the collision information when the robot is operating beside

the human. Recently, many researchers tried to install the
torque sensor at each joint of the robot to measuring the direct
torque on the joint. This application can measure the collision
information on the robot body, since the torque of each joint
can be measured [?J.
By the way the torque sensor has not been used in industry
and robotic field, even though it provide significant improve­
ments. The fundamental reason is the price of the sensor is
too expensive to use in every joints of the robot. Traditionally
torque sensor is adopted to measure the resistance by attaching
strain gauge on the flexure hinge of the sensor [?]. This process
accompanied with complex manufacturing process and due to
this process, the price of the sensor is set very expensive. Fur­
thermore, to measure the resistance, the additional transducer
is needed.
In this paper, a novel capacitance type torque sensor is
proved to break though the problems that the existing torque
sensors have. Capacitance type sensor has major advantages
in that it has simple manufacturing process, since it measures
(a) (b)
Fig. 2. A response of sensing parts when the rotational torque applied (a)
Deformation at one side of sensing cell when Z axis moment loads, (b)
Deformation another side of sensing cell when Z axis moment loads
the capacitance between electrodes [?J. Also the additional
transducer is not necessary in this system.
This paper is organized as follows: The development of
torque sensor is explained in Section 2. Verification of torque
sensor is presented in Section 3. Lastly, the conclusion is
explained in Section 4.
2. DEVELOP MENT OF TORQUE SENSOR
2.1. Principle of measuring capacitance
As shown in Fig. 1, the proposed torque sensor has two
capacitance sensing parts and two deformable parts which

978-1-5090-0821-6/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE 256


Fig. 3. Design of the flexure hinges and physical information of trapezoid
cantilever
composed of two flexure hinges. In the capacitance sensing
parts, the capacitance between two electrodes is measured.
The capacitance can be expressed as [?]
6.A
6.C coer
6.d
=
where co and er are the electric constant and relative static
permittivity, respectively. 6.A presents the overlapped area be­
tween two electrodes and 6.d is the parallel distance between
two electrodes. In this case, the deformable plate functions a
negative electrode and the electrode on the signal processing
board (PCB) substrate functions a positive electrode. Also, the
sensor measures the capacitance between orthogonally related
two electrodes. At this time, fringe effect is occurred between
two electrodes. The fringe effect means an electric field outside
of the plates that curves from one to the other. According to the
previous research, the sensitivity of the capacitance is 5 times
higher when the two electrodes have orthogonal relationship
than the original horizontal relationship [?].
The Fig. 2 (a), (b) show the movement of the negative
electrode when the rotational torque is applied on the torque.
The Fig. 2 (a) presents the left side of the capacitance sensing
part and Fig. 2 (b) expresses the right side of the capacitance
sensing part. As it shows, the distance between two electrodes
is decreased both sides. In this case, the fringe effect be­
tween two electrodes is increase and thus, the capacitance is
increased. Finally, the measured capacitance is transformed to
the torque element.
2.2. Design of the deformable part
According to the fundamental principle of the capacitance,
the capacitance is sensitive by the change of the distance or the
overlapped area between two electrodes. Thus, the deformation
at the capacitance sensing part has to be maintained certain
deformation rate between two electrodes. Lee et al. presented
a resistive type torque sensor by using trapezoid cantilever
[?]. In case of parallel cantilever, the deformation is occurred
mostly inside of the cantilever. Thus, they proposed trapezoid
cantilever to gain a constant strain rate over the surface. In this
research, we also have to gain the constant deformation on the
capacitance sensing parts, therefore we considered to install
two trapezoid cantilever at each side of torque sensor. The
connection part for reference
sensor and the base
Connection pan for reference
sensor and developed sensor
Moment ann for applying
rotational IOrque
Fig. 4. Calibration setup for the rotational torque element
(1)
physical information of the trapezoid cantilever is shown in
Fig. 3 and these information is determined by using simulation
tool. Here d1 is the length of the lower base, d2 is the length
of the upper base, I is the length of between upper and lower
base and h is the height of the trapezoid cantilever.
3. VERIFICATION OF THE DEVELOPED TORQUE
SENSOR
3.1. Calibration process of the developed torque sensor
To get the capacitance data when the rotational torque
is applied, an experimental setup was installed as Fig. 4.
As shown in fig. 4, a calibration module is composed of
two connection parts, two supporting parts, a moment arm,
and the reference torque sensor (TFF-500kgfcm, Sane). In
moment arm, there are three holes at 300 mm, 400 mm
and 500 mm to weight. Before we calibrate the capacitance
to the torque element, the nonlinearity of the capacitance
has to be solved. As we mentioned in previous section, the
capacitance is related with the distance and the overlapped
area between two electrodes. However, the capacitance is
in inverse proportion to the distance change. Thus, to solve
nonlinear relationship between the torque and the capacitance,
the exponential function is used to fit. Fig. 5 shows a graph
that expresses the relationship between capacitance and torque.
As it shows, the capacitance has nonlinear relationship with
the torque and the red line represents the exponential function.
The fitted exponential function is expressed as
Here, Tl (x) is the torque measured by the reference sensor,
and the x represents the capacitance. The relation of two
data is almost fitted by the exponenetial function. Because the
sensor has two sensing parts, there is one more the nonlinear
curve fitting process.
T2(x) = -454.3 + 458.3 * exp( -7.76 * 10-4 * x) (3)
257
 50

E
�
-40
b

�
0 -100

� S
"
11
"-
�
-200

'f < -250

-200 -300
200 - 2 50 -200 -150 -100 -50

Measured torque (Nm)

(a) Fig. 7. The relation between the linear fit torque measured by developed
torque sensor and the reference sensor

E -40
b
4. CONCLUSION
t
-80

In this paper, the design of a novel torque sensor based on

11 -120

"-
'f capacitive sensing was presented. To get a linear relationship
between the capacitance and the applied torque, the structure
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
of the flexure hinge is considered to deform linearly. Moreover,
.C
nonlinear fitting curve method is used to fit the capacitance
(b) data linearly. Based on this study, the following conclusions
are drawn. Firstly, by using capacitance sensing method the
Fig. 5. The nonlinear relation between the torque element and the capacitance
problems of using torque sensor in industry and robotic field
can be solved. Because it is not necessary to install the
strain gauge, the price of the torque sensor is able to be
250
t--- Roerence sensor data I
low. Secondly, the developed torque sensor doesn't need aby
f- D�doped sensor datal additional transducer outside of the sensor. This can solve the
E
200

b whole robotic system lighter.

150

�
,... 100
" ACKNOWLEDGMENT
"- 50

'f This research was supported by the convergence technology

development program for bionic arm through the National
10 12
Sampling time (s) 8
Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry
of Science, ICT & Future Plannig (No. 20l4M3CIB2048175)
Fig. 6. Time domain responses of the torque measured by the developed
torque sensor REFERENCES

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Here, T2(x) is the torque measured by the reference sensor,
and the x represents the capacitance. Then the final calibrated
torque value is calculated by averaging the fitted two torques.
3.2. verification of the torque of the developed torque sensor
For the evaluation of the sensor, we used the same ex­
perimental setup with the calibration process. Then applied
the randomed torque to the torque sensor. Fig. 6 shows the
two data measured by reference sensor and the developed
sensor. The maximum applied torque is up to 200 Nm and the
maximum error is under 2%. This error includes the assembly
tolerance of fixing jig. Finally, to verify the developed torque
sensor has stable torque with no hysterisys, the data of
applying random torque is used. Fig. 7 shows the data of
applying random torque. the X axis presents the measured
torque by the developed torque sensor and the Y axis presents
the measured torque by the reference torque. The linearity of
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