Optimal design and experiment research of a fully pre-stressed six-axis force/torque sensor

•A novel fully pre-stressed six-axis force/torque sensor is proposed.•An optimal design method based on the given measurement range is proposed.•Structural parameters of the sensor are obtained to meet the expected requirements.•Experimental results indicate that the proposed sensor possesses good performance.

This paper presents the design and experiment of a fully pre-stressed six-axis force/torque sensor with double layers. The structure characteristic of the fully pre-stressed six-axis force/torque sensor is introduced in comparison with the traditional Stewart platform-based force sensor. In order to meet the expected task requirements, an optimal design approach based on the given measurement range of the sensor is proposed with the aim of minimizing the forces of the measuring limbs overall. Considering the optimization objective, the optimal solutions of the structural parameters are obtained. Finally, the sensor prototype is manufactured and the calibration system is developed. The calibration experiment is performed and the results prove the superiority of the sensor structure and the validity of the optimal design method.