Novel contactless torque sensor based on optical coherence

Abstract

This work proposes a novel contactless sensor to measure the micro torque of a rotating shaft based on the optical coherence displacement measurement (OCDM) principle. The experimental system features a simple mechanical testing system to measure the torque, a calibration device to establish the measurement baseline, and a polyetheretherketone (PEEK) shaft to improve the theoretical resolution of the system up to 0.003 Nm. The torque measurement results indicate that this sensor achieved a maximum nonlinearity error of 0.0484 %, maximum repeatability error of 0.2771 %, and maximum hysteresis error of 0.2252 %. This high accuracy of our system stems from the use of high-precision optical principles and the novel physical mapping of the torque (i.e., processing scales on the shaft surface to represent the twist angle by designing a laser engraving system) capable of resisting the negative effects of radial vibrations. Additionally, our torque measurement sensor possesses broader applicability by effectively resisting the impacts of temperature variations and electromagnetic interference. These attributes make it excel other torque sensors presented in the literature in recent years.