An assembly measures a bending torque on a machine element extending on an axis using the inverse magnetostrictive effect. The machine element has a cavity and at least one magnetization region, extending circumferentially around the axis. A magnetic sensor is arranged in the cavity to measure a directional component of a magnetic field which is brought about by the magnetization and by the bending torque. A second directional component of the magnetic field may be measured by the magnetic sensor or by another magnetic sensor.

The invention provides a sensor assembly for force sensing, the sensor assembly comprising: a first portion having a first and a second through hole, a second portion having a third and fourth through hole, and a first pin and a second pin coupling the first portion to the second portion. At least one out of the first and the second pin comprises a magnetoelastic based sensor for outputting a signal corresponding to a stress-induced magnetic flux emanating from a magnetically polarized region of the pin. The magnetoelastic based sensor comprises at least one direction sensitive magnetic field sensor in an at least partially hollow portion of the pin, which field sensor is configured for determination of a shear force in at least one direction. The invention further provides a tow coupling comprising the sensor assembly. The invention further provides a method for detecting a load.

A magneto-elastically-based active force sensor, used with a tow coupling between a towed and a towing vehicle or a coupling between a vehicle body and a suspension of the vehicle, which outputs a signal useful for determining forces acting on the coupling. The outputted force information may be provided by processor-enabled embedded software algorithms that take inputs from the force sensor and other sensors, may be used by one or more vehicle systems during operating of the vehicle, such as engine, braking, stability, safety, and informational systems. The force sensor includes directionally-sensitive magnetic field sensing elements inside the sensor, and shielding may be used around the sensors to reduce the influence of external magnetic fields on the sensing elements. The force sensor may be used with different tow and vehicle weight sensing coupling devices installed on different types of automobile cars and trucks.

A force sensor includes a first member, a second member, an intermediate member, a first elastic structure that couples the first member and the intermediate member, a second elastic structure that couples the second member and the intermediate member, and a displacement detector that measures displacements of the first member and the second member. It is possible to provide a force sensor that has high detection precision and that is compact.

A force measurement system is disclosed herein. In one embodiment, the system includes a force measurement assembly configured to receive a subject; a data processing device operatively coupled to the force measurement assembly, the data processing device configured to determine a center of pressure for the subject using output forces and/or moments from the force measurement assembly; and a mobile device configured to determine one or more parameters indicative of the body sway for the subject. In this embodiment, a fall risk of the subject is assessed based upon a combination of the center of pressure and the one or more parameters indicative of the body sway determined for the subject.

The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for measuring a force and/or moment on a machine element extending along an axis, using the inverse magnetostrictive effect. The machine element has a magnetization region for magnetization, this region fully encompassing the axis. The arrangement includes at least one first magnetic sensor and one second magnetic sensor, each being designed to measure individually a first and a second direction component of a magnetic field that is caused by the magnetization and by the force and/or the moment. The direction components that can be measured using the first magnetic sensor have differing orientations. Likewise, the direction components that can be measured using the second magnetic sensor have differing orientations. The first magnetic sensor and the second magnetic sensor are arranged around the axis at different peripheral positions.

A displacement measurement device includes a first structure, a second structure, and a coupling portion configured to couple the first structure with the second structure. The first structure includes a first sensor configured to generate an electrical signal corresponding to displacement between a first attachment portion of the first structure and a second attachment portion of the second structure in the at least one first direction. The second structure includes a second sensor configured to generate an electrical signal corresponding to displacement between the first attachment portion and the second attachment portion in the at least one second direction.

Various sensor assemblies are described herein that can measure axial and lateral forces and/or axial and lateral torques acting on an instrument independent of steady state temperature variations. In one embodiment, the sensor assembly has a sensor body for coupling to the instrument such that a shaft and tip of the instrument extend from opposing ends of the sensor body. The sensor body has first and second strain sensing regions. The sensor assembly further includes first and second strain sensors coupled to and configured to measure axial strain of the first and second regions, respectively. During use, when the sensor body is coupled to the instrument, each of the first and second regions experience an opposite one of a tensile axial strain and a compressive axial strain in response to an axial force or an axial torque acting on the tip of the instrument.

A pneumatic-based tactile sensor according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes: a tactile sense transmitting pneumatic unit for generating pneumatic pressure by an external load applied to a first side; and a tactile sense receiving sensor unit for measuring the load by transforming a magnitude of pneumatic pressure of the tactile sense transmitting pneumatic unit into a displacement.

A force measurement system is disclosed herein. The force measurement system includes a force measurement assembly and a data processing device operatively coupled to the force measurement assembly. In one or more embodiments, the data processing device is configured to reference a stored global calibration matrix for the force measurement assembly, to determine a location of an applied load on the surface of the force measurement assembly using the stored global calibration matrix, to assign the applied load to one or more of a plurality of different load regions based upon the location of the applied load, and to compute one or more output forces or moments of the applied load using stored local calibration information for the one or more of the plurality of different load regions. A method of calibrating a force measurement system is also disclosed herein.