An Optimum Structural Design Method for a Torque Sensor Measuring the Control Moment of the Micro Flapping-wing Robot

Abstract This paper presents an optimum structural design method for a sensor capable of measuring the control torque of the micro flapping-wing robot. The method focuses on the development of a multi-objective optimization method based on the surrogate model to solve the sensor indicator design issues, for example, increasing sensitivity while meeting bandwidth requirements. Initially, Latin hypercube sampling was applied to the choice of the characteristic parameters of the sensor. Based on finite element techniques, the surrogate models describing deformation displacement and characteristic frequency were established to characterize the sensor indicators, and a mul-ti-objective optimization was conducted. According to the optimization results, the sensor struc-ture was manufactured, and a torque measurement platform was set up. Calibration experiments and frequency response experiments demonstrated a high level of consistency between theoretical analysis results and experimental data. Under a given torque, the error between the theoretical displacement deformation and experimental values of the sensor was approximately 2%, while the error between the theoretical and experimental values of the frequency response was 7.47%. This indicates that the optimum structural design method can be utilized for the theoretical guidance design of high-resolution torque sensors, thus laying the foundation for the control torque meas-urement of micro flapping-wing robots.