Project Title: Design of a 6-D Force Sensor for Telerobotics.
Project Code: MAM11.

Telerobotics allows an operator to remotely manipulate objects by using a slave robot arm. The motion of the slave arm is a copy (replica) of the operator hand motion. It has been shown that the quality of the teleoperations can be greatly improved if the operator is provided with the reflected force feedback. This force (force and torque) is captured at the level of the slave robot hand, close to the manipulated object. The force is transmitted to the operator where it helps him extending his force feeling which greatly contributes to avoid jamming situations as well as avoiding the operator from exerting excessive stress on the manipulated object through the slave arm. A force sensor is preferably located in the interface between the robot end part and the robot gripper. The force sensor is a compliant device (passive and active) that complies with the external forces exerted on the manipulated object. Ideally the compliance allows translating and rotating the object so that to comply with the external force (obstacle, jamming, etc.). The force sensor allows also to detect the external forces which enables their transfer to the operator for use as reflected force feedback. The project is on the design of a 6-D force sensor for the Unimate PUMA 560 Robot arm. The desired features are: (1) small 6-D deformations, (2) simple architecture and design, (3) light weight, (4) 6-D symmetric spring. The force sensor will be interfaced to a PC which will evaluate the forces and torques exerted on the object based the signal read on the sensors. The device will be tested and evaluated on the above robot with operations like the peg-in-hole insertion and others.