Introducing the world’s first 10mm subminiature 6-axis force/torque sensor

Adin Robotics is a robotics company that started in 2019 at the Robotics Innovatory laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Sungkyunkwan University and is focusing on robot sensors. 

According to a report, many of the deaths from industrial accidents in 2021 was workers getting stuck between robots and facilities. To solve this problem, Adin Robotics is researching and developing various new sensor technologies based on the field sensing technique accumulated since 1995. 

▲ AIDIN ROBOTICS / CEO Yoon Haeng, Lee

Capacitance measurement overcomes manual process

Highly scalable from micro-sized to ultra-thin

Most of the reasons robots cause problems are sensors. Unlike humans, robots do not feel physical contact, so more than 64% of manufacturing processes cannot be automated. But if robots can feel like humans, these non-automated processes become possible. The sensor developed by Aidin Robotics is a force/torque sensor that helps the robot feel all the forces in the 3D space. “We measure both the force and torque generated in the XYZ axis,” said CEO Yoon Haeng Lee. “It is a sensor that can give this sense as data to a robot.” 

Existing force/torque sensors were difficult to introduce due to high cost and high level of application. So, Aidin Robotics avoided the manual process of existing sensors by using the capacitance measurement and developed a design technology capable of mass production. This method is highly scalable as it can be manufactured from micro-sized to ultra-thin. The company drew great attention by developing the world’s smallest 10mm subminiature 6-axis force/torque sensor and it has all the signal processing units built in, so the usability is high. 

Selected as a national project to develop customized manufacturing technology for key force/torque sensors for service robots

Improving the environment in the field of logistics robots

Adin Robotics developed various sensors using the world’s leading field sensing technologies. One of them is a new type of dual-mode proximity tactile sensor technology that can detect changes in meso-scale and avoid or stop before colliding with a worker. Existing cooperative robot safety measures decelerate or stop after a collision occurs. Because of this, safety was not completely secured at the collaboration site between robots and humans, and there were cases where a secondary accident occurred due to the impact of the collision. Aidin Robotics’ proximity safety sensor (APS series), which complements these advantages, detects collisions in advance and decelerates or stops before collisions to prevent safety accidents. This sensor can be built into a universal gripper or the like. 

Through these development capabilities, Aidin Robotics was selected as the leading company for the national project ‘Development of Customized Manufacturing Technology for Key Force-Torque Sensors for Service Robots’. This project is part of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s materials and parts technology development projects, and the total cost is about 3.5 billion won. In this study, which runs until December 31, 2024, Aidin Robotics plans to develop custom force/torque sensor technology for service robots in conjunction with the collaborative robot Neuromeka. CEO Lee said, “We will develop a gripper system that can quickly and accurately grab objects without damage and without any prior information of the objects. Through this, we will improve the logistics environment by supplying solutions suitable for the explosively growing field of logistics robots.”