Abstract: A torque sensor comprises a transducer plate having a center area and periphery connected by a plurality of spokes and instrumentation beams. The transducer plate exhibits mechanical compliance under axial torque, but stiffness under off-axis loads. Strain gages attached to instrumentation beams detect deformation caused by axial torques. The instrumentation beams may be asymmetric, allowing strain gages to be placed in regions of high sensitivity to axial torques and low sensitivity to off-axis loads. The strain gage responses from some off-axis loads are designed to be coupled to, or linearly dependent on, the strain gage responses of other off-axis loads. This reduces the number of strain gages necessary to resolve the loads. The spokes and beams are cost-effectively formed by removing adjacent transducer plate material in simple shapes.

Abstract: A torque sensor comprises a transducer plate comprising a center area and periphery connected by a plurality of spokes and instrumentation beams. The transducer plate exhibits mechanical compliance under axial torque, but stiffness under off-axis loads. Strain gages attached to instrumentation beams detect deformation caused by axial torques. The instrumentation beams are asymmetric in some embodiments, allowing strain gages to be placed in regions of high sensitivity to axial torques and low sensitivity to off-axis loads. The strain gage responses from some off-axis loads are designed to be coupled to, or linearly dependent on, the strain gage responses of other off-axis loads. This reduces the number of strain gages need to at least partially resolve all loads. The spokes and beams are cost-effectively formed by removing adjacent transducer plate material in simple shapes. The strain gages may be connected in various ways, such as Wheatstone quarter-, half-, or full-bridge topologies.