Mid Sweden University

This paper presents an experimental comparative analysis of a torque measurement method based on volumetric strain, utilizing a prototype torque sensor design is compared to a reference high performance torque sensor. A brief description of the background work of the numerical analysis of the method is also discussed as well as the readout electronics design. Based on the simulations and readout electronics analysis it is concluded that the sensor has a mechanical range of ±300 N·m. The manufacturing details of the prototype torque sensor are also discussed. A test setup is used to place the two torque sensors in line, to allow comparison for which a high performance conventional off-the-shelf torque sensor is selected. The experiments show that the proposed method of torque measurement can be fully implemented and used to measure torque with higher response time, resolution and wider range. Furthermore, future work is proposed to fully characterize the sensor over the full range using a reference setup rather than a torque sensor, as the available conventional sensors cannot be used to characterize the prototype torque sensor in full range with higher performance than the sensor itself.