Minebea Co., Ltd. ("Minebea")'s high-performance 6-axis force sensors have been adopted into the wrists and ankles of a prototype of the "Power Loader," a dual arm power amplification robot developed by Activelink Co., Ltd. ("Activelink"; Address: Seika-cho, Soraku-gun, Kyoto; President: Mr. Hiromichi Fujimoto).
The Power Loader—with robot arms and legs that follow human limb movements—is a next-generation type robot. It assists human heavy work—by increasing the forces applied to its control grip by a few dozen and lifting heavy objects by the operator's intuitive senses. Currently, toward commercializing this next-generation robot for heavy work applications, such as construction, engineering work and disaster rescue sites, Activelink is developing control technology to improve operability.
Minebea's 6-axis force sensors are installed into the wrists and ankles of the Power Loader prototype, and used to instantly and accurately detect the volume and direction of forces applied by the operator (three-way forces and twists). The sensors adopt Minebea's proprietary optical pickup system(*note 1) and are equipped with a DSP(*note 2) which performs high-speed processing. As a result, they are able to provide high-accuracy force detection despite their small size and weight. They also enable direct connection to sequencer microcomputers, not via personal computers, and allow greater flexibility in system designing suited for applications. Activelink's adoption is the result of the evaluation of these features.
The lower prices of the 6-axis force sensors have been achieved by the substantial cost reduction made in October last year. Minebea intends to indirectly help commercialize next-generation type robots such as the Power Loader—by continuing to drive its initiatives toward further cost reduction. Going forward, Minebea also intends to prepare its production structure with an eye toward supplying the sensors at 100,000 yen or lower per unit to cope with full-scale volume production of next-generation type robots.
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