RAT292 Sensors and

Actuators for Robotics

Dr.Sreepriya.S
Dept. of Robotics and Automation
 Module I (8 Hours)
• Proprioceptive or Internal sensors Position sensors- encoders- linear, rotary, incremental
linear encoder, absolute linear encoder, Incremental rotary encoder, absolute rotary encoder;
potentiometers; LVDTs; velocity sensors-optical encoders, tacho generator, Hall effect sensor,
acceleration sensors, Heading sensors- Compass, Gyroscope sensor, IMU, GPS, real time
differential GPS; Force sensors-strain gauge based and Piezo electric based, Torque sensors;
Block schematic representations; Interpreting typical manufacturer’s data sheet of internal
sensors;
Robotic Sensors
Robotic Sensors

• One of the most important tasks of autonomous systems of

any kind is to acquire knowledge about its environment.
• This is done by taking measurements using various sensors
and then extracting meaningful information from those
measurements.
 Sensor Classification
• There are two categories of physical sensors : Active &Passive
• Active sensors
• The sensor emits some form of energy and then measures the impact as a way of
understanding the environment. Active sensors emit energy then measure the
reaction
• These sensors often have restricted environments.
• Some examples of active sensors include ultrasonic, laser, and IR sensors.
• Passive sensors
• The sensor receives energy already in the environment/Passive sensors use
energy coming from the environment (e.g. temperature probe)
• These sensors consume less energy, but often have signal and noise problems.
• An example of a passive sensor is a camera; it uses the energy in the
environment to capture a snapshot.
Sensor Classification

• Robots utilized sensors in one of three ways:

• Proprioceptive Sensors
• Internal state sensors
• Exteroceptive Sensors
• External state sensors
• Exproprioceptive Sensors
• Combined.
Proprioceptive sensors
• Proprioceptive sensors measure values internal to the
system (robot)
• These sensors are responsible for monitoring self
maintenance and controlling internal status.
• Common uses of proprioceptive measurements are
for battery monitoring, current sensing, and heat
monitoring.
• E.g. motor speed , wheel load, robot arm joint angles,
battery voltage
Examples of Proprioceptive Sensors
• Global Positioning Sys tem (GPS)
• Inertial Navigation System (INS) .
• Shaft Encoders - A shaft encoder, also known as a rotary encoder, is an
electro-magnetic device that works as a transducer to convert the angular
position of a shaft or axle to an analog or digital code.
• Compass - A compass sensor is used to detect direction and accurately
correct motion.
• Inclinometer - An inclinometer sensor measures the tilt or angle of an
axis.
Exteroceptive sensors
• Exteroceptive sensors acquire information from the robot’s
environment;
• e.g. distance measurements, light intensity, sound amplitude.
• Hence exteroceptive sensor measurements are interpreted by the
robot in order to extract meaningful environmental features
POSITION SENSOR
 POSITION SENSOR
• Position sensors are employed to determine the position of an
object in relation to some reference point.
• Position Sensors can detect the movement of an object in a straight
line using Linear Sensors or by its angular movement using
Rotational Sensors
• Contact type
• Potentiometer
• LVDT
• Non contact type
• Proximity sensors
• Encoders
 POTENTIOMETER

• Potentiometers are simplest type of position sensors.

• They can be used for linear as well as angular position measurement.
• It has a wiper contact linked to a mechanical shaft that can be either angular
(rotational) or linear (slider type) in its movement, and which causes the
resistance value between the wiper/slider and the two end connections to
change giving an electrical signal output that has a proportional relationship
between the actual wiper position on the resistive track and its resistance value.
•During the sensing operation, a voltage E is applied across the
resistive element. A voltage divider circuit is formed when slider
comes into contact with the wire. The output voltage (eo) is measured.
The output voltage is proportional to the displacement of the slider
over the wire.
• When used as a position sensor the moveable object is connected directly to
the rotational shaft or slider of the potentiometer.
• Example, the rotation of a robots wheel to determine its distance travelled
along the ground
• Advantages:
• low cost,
• Efficiency is high, it give sufficient output voltage so no need of further
amplifier
• Useful for measurement of large displacement
• easy to use
• Disadvantages:
• It require large force to move the sliding contact
• wear due to moving parts,
• low accuracy,
• low repeatability,
• and limited frequency response.
• The range of movement of its wiper or slider (and hence the output signal
obtained) is limited to the physical size of the potentiometer being used.
Linear Variable Differential Transformer

• The term LVDT stands for the Linear Variable Differential Transformer. It
is the most widely used inductive transducer that converts the linear motion
into the electrical signal.
• The output across secondary of this transformer is the differential thus it is
called so
 Construction
• The transformer consists of a primary winding P and two secondary winding S1 and S2 wound
on a cylindrical former (which is hollow in nature and will contain core).
• Both the secondary windings have equal number of turns and are identically placed on the
either side of primary winding
• The primary winding is connected to an AC source which produces a flux in the air gap and
voltages are induced in secondary windings.
• A movable soft iron core is placed inside the former and displacement to be measured is
connected to the iron core.
• The iron core is generally of high permeability which helps in reducing harmonics and high
sensitivity of LVDT.
• The LVDT is placed inside a stainless steel housing because it will provide electrostatic and
electromagnetic shielding.
• The both the secondary windings are connected in such a way that resulted output is the
difference of the voltages of two windings.
 Working
• CASE I : When the core is at null position (for no displacement)
• When the core is at null position then the flux linking with both the secondary windings
is equal so the induced emf is equal in both the windings.
• So for no displacement the value of output eout is zero as e1 and e2 both are equal. So it
shows that no displacement took place.
• CASE II: When the core is moved to upward of null position
• In the this case the flux linking with secondary winding S1 is more as compared to flux
linking with S2.
• Due to this e1 will be more as that of e2. Due to this output voltage eout is positive.
• CASE III: When the core is moved to downward of Null position.
• In this case magnitude of e2 will be more as that of e1.
• Due to this output eout will be negative and shows the output to downward of the
reference point.
• Advantages of LVDT
• High Range – The LVDTs have a very high range for measurement of displacement ranging from 1.25
mm to 250 mm
• No Frictional Losses – As the core moves inside a hollow former so there is no loss of displacement
input as frictional loss so it makes LVDT as very accurate device.
• High Input and High Sensitivity – The output of LVDT is so high that it doesn’t need any amplification.
It possesses a high sensitivity which is typically about 40V/mm.
• Low Hysteresis – LVDTs show a low hysteresis and hence repeatability is excellent under all
conditions
• Low Power Consumption – The power is about 1W which is very as compared to other transducers.
• Direct Conversion to Electrical Signals – They convert the linear displacement to electrical voltage
which are easy to process

• Disadvantages of LVDT
• LVDT is sensitive to stray magnetic fields so it always requires a setup to protect them from stray
magnetic fields.
• LVDT gets affected by vibrations and temperature.
ENCODER
• An encoder is a sensor of mechanical motion that generates digital
signals in response to motion.
• Its an electro-mechanical device,
• Encoders are used to translate rotary or linear motion into a digital
signal.
• Usually this is for the purpose of monitoring or controlling motion
parameters such as speed, rate, direction, distance or position.
Encoder Types and Technologies
• There are many different types of encoders but they basically fall into
two main sensing techniques. Those being:
• Linear
• Rotary

• Within those categories, there are differing encoder measurement

types such as:
• Absolute
• Incremental

• There are also various electromechanical technologies such as:

• Magnetic
• Optical
• Inductive
• Capacitive
• Laser
Linear and Rotary Encoders

• There are two different types of encoders: linear and rotary.

• A linear encoder responds to motion along a path, while a rotary encoder
responds to rotational motion.
• An encoder is generally categorized by the means of its output.
• An incremental encoder generates a train of pulses which can be
used to determine position and speed.
• An absolute encoder generates unique bit configurations to track
positions directly.
 Incremental Linear Encoder
• It has a transparent glass scale
with opaque grating.
• The thickness of grating lines
and the gap between them is
made same, which are in the
range of microns.
• One side of the scale is provided
with a light source and a
condenser lens.

• On the other side there are light-sensitive cells. The resistance of the
cells (photodiodes) decreases whenever a beam of light falls on them.
• Thus, a pulse is generated each time a beam of light is intersected by
the opaque line. This pulse is fed to the controller, which updates a
counter (a record of the distance traveled).
 Absolute Linear Encoder
• It is similar in principle as
the incremental linear
encoder.
• The difference is that it
gives absolute value of the
distance covered at any
time.
• Thus, the chance of missing
the pulses at high speeds is • The scale is marked in a sequence of opaque and transparent
less. strips.
• The output is digital in this •
In the scale shown, if the opaque block represents 1 (one) and
case. the transparent block as 0 (zero) then the leftmost column will
show a binary number as 00000, i.e., a decimal value of 0, and
the rightmost column will show a binary number 11111, i.e., a
decimal value of 61.
Incremental Rotary Encoder
 Optical Encoders(Incremental Rotary
Encoder)

• Optical encoders provide digital output as a result of linear/angular

displacement. These are widely used in the Servo motors to measure the
rotation of shafts.
• It comprises of a disc with three concentric tracks of equally spaced holes.
Three light sensors are employed to detect the light passing through the
holes. These sensors produce electric pulses which give the angular
displacement of the mechanical element e.g. shaft on which the Optical
encoder is mounted.
• The inner track has just one hole which is used locate the ‘home’ position of
the disc. The holes on the middle track offset from the holes of the outer
track by one-half of the width of the hole. This arrangement provides the
direction of rotation to be determined.
Optical Encoders
• When the disc rotates in clockwise direction, the pulses in the outer
track lead those in the inner; in counter clockwise direction they lag
behind. The resolution can be determined by the number of holes on
disc.
• With 100 holes in one revolution, the resolution would be, 360
/100 = 3.6 ⁰
• An incremental optical encoder is a disc divided into sectors that are
alternately transparent and opaque.
• A light source is positioned on one side of the disc, and a light sensor on
the other side. As the disc rotates, the output from the detector switches
alternately on and off, depending on whether the sector appearing
between the light source and the detector is transparent or opaque.
• Thus, the encoder produces a stream of square wave pulses which, when
counted, indicate the angular position of the shaft.
• A potentially serious disadvantage is that incremental encoders require
external counters to determine absolute angles within a given rotation.
If the power is momentarily shut off, or if the encoder misses a pulse
due to noise or a dirty disc, the resulting angular information will be in
error.
 Absolute Rotary Encoder
• An absolute optical encoder's disc is divided up into N sectors (N = 5 for example), and
each sector is further divided radially along its length into opaque and transparent
sections, forming a unique N-bit digital word with a maximum count of 2N – 1.
• The digital word formed radially by each sector increments in value from one sector to
the next, usually employing Gray code.
• Binary coding could be used, but can produce large errors if a single bit is incorrectly
interpreted by the sensors. Gray code overcomes this defect: the maximum error
produced by an error in any single bit of the Gray code is only 1 LSB after the Gray code
is converted into binary code.
• A set of N light sensors responds to the N-bit digital word which corresponds to the
disc's absolute angular position.
•THANK YOU