Analysis of Bio-Inspired Structures for 3D Force Sensing Using Virtual Prototyping

Abstract

3D force sensors have been proven its effectiveness and appropriateness for robotics applications. It has been used in medical and physical therapy applications such as surgical robot and Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Manipulation (IASTM) in the recent times. The 3D force sensors have been utilized in robot assisted surgeries and modern physical therapy devices to monitor the 3D forces for improved performances. The 3D force sensor performance and specifications depend on different design parameters, such as structural configuration, sensing elements placements, and load criterion. In this paper, different bioinspired structure configurations have been investigated and analyzed to obtain the optimal 3D force sensor configuration in terms of structural integrity, compactness, safety factor, and strain sensitivity. Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulation was used for the analysis to minimize the time of the development cycle.