Software environment for calibration and modeling of low-cost force sensor system

A sensor system is designed and evaluated to be used in force-feedback joystick intended for haptics application in medicine. Low-cost sensor elements with strain-gauges are arranged on four plates allowing measurements of force vector in perpendicular planes. Low-noise AD620 chip with programmable gain is used for amplifying the sensor data to be logged into PC via HUMUSOFT 624 PCI card. Configuration setup, data logging, visualization and modelling is done in MATLAB with custom designed GUI application. An experimental test-bed is designed and machined to verify, to analyse and to model the sensor system. Software environment with GUI in Matlab is general and can be later applied for evaluation of other sensor setup of the same mechanical configuration but with different sensing elements.