Lens-less PSD measurement of flexible link deflection

Abstract

Accurate measurement of change in tip position and orientation of flexible links is of substantial importance for flexible robot control applications. In this paper, a measurement system is proposed to measure the change in position and orientation at the tip of a link subjected to bending and torsion with the use of position sensitive detector (PSD) sensors for space applications. Contrary to existing methods for measuring the spatial deflection of a flexible robot, the proposed method eliminates the requirement of a fragile lens or prism to obtain the angular displacement when PSD sensors are used. Experimental results for measuring five variables are presented for a cantilever flexible link when subjected to bending and torsion under a static load, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.