Analytical models for designing force sensors

This paper presents a systematic analysis of force sensors at the design stage. A generalized model of the sensors is developed on the basis of static and kinematic equations, and the block form of the resulting strain compliance matrix of the sensor is obtained. The model developed is then applied to the analysis of the two and three-dimensional sensor schemes corresponding to the regular polygons and polyhedrons. The condition number of the normalized strain compliance matrix of the sensor is used as the performance index. Impossibility of reaching the optimal values of this criterion is stated for the regular-polygon-form-based sensors. Partial solutions of the optimisation problem are found out for the regular-polyhedron-form-based sensors. The presentation of the material is illustrated by analytical examples