Hi Everyone,
I am a Computer Science student who has taken a class in Robotics last year and became very interested in it after. I am looking into creating a new product that I believe could be very useful. I am wondering what the best sensor I could purchase would be that is able to measure force, basically what I need is a sensor that can determine a range of force that is applied to it, such as if it was pressed at around 0.1 pounds of force or 10 pounds of force or anywhere in between. It does not have to be extremely accurate but will have to be able to measure a constant force for up to 10 hours at a time without varying a great deal. I don’t need to know the exact weight that is being applied, just any way of measuring force would work.
I believe a force resistance sensor is my best approach, however I am unsure whether another item would work better. Also how do I determine what the max weight one of these sensors can detect is, I have found a few on robot shop but am unsure what weight they can hold as I would like the maximum to be around 10lbs.
I am also ordering from the Canadian site as well.
Thanks for your help!
Hi,
You have some options to do this. You can, for example, use a capacitive force sensor. The Capacitive Force Sensor 15 mm 45 N (10 pounds) would be perfect for this. It has a force resolution of about 0.02 pounds and can be used with this Capacitive Force Sensor Electronics DAQ (Analog & I2C Output).
Another possible solution would be to use a wheatstone bridge based Load Cell with an appropriate amplifier. For your application, the 5 Kg Micro Load Cell (about 11 pounds) would work. You can use it with the Load Cell / Wheatstone Amplifier Shield and an Arduino UNO Board or with the HX711 Load Cell Amplifier.
Hope this helps,