A novel magnetoelastic torque sensor with planar spiral coil probes for humanoid robot joints

Humanoid robot joints require real-time torque detection to provide accurate force feedback information for the control system. To meet the measurement requirements and realize the miniaturization of the sensor, a torque sensor based on the magnetoelastic effect is developed, utilizing planar spiral coils as detection probes. In this work, a planar spiral coil mutual inductance calculation model is established to solve the mutual inductance coefficient, and the mechanical structure and circuit design of the sensor are completed. Finally, a torque loading platform is built to perform calibration experiments, and the hysteresis model is improved to compensate for the hysteresis phenomenon. The calibration results indicate that the sensor shows excellent loaded nonlinearity of 3.08%F.S., unloaded nonlinearity of 2.71%F.S., loaded repeatability of 2.48%F.S., unloaded repeatability of 1.89%F.S. and hysteresis of 1.9%F.S., at a compact probe size of 13.8×9.9×1.8 mm.