Analysis of Noise Effects in Data Acquisition of Multi-Axis Force/Torque Sensors

One of the major factors that effect sensor performance is analog noise that added in a sensor signal such as voltage. In multi-axis force sensors, error sources may be classified mainly in two groups. One is structural error due to inaccuracy of sensor body. The other error source is noise signals existing in the sensed information. This paper presents a brief review about the principle of multi-axis force sensors, and then proposes a method that can reduce the effect of noise signal to sensor performance. The method is to convert analog voltage signal to digital numbers near sensor body and then to read these digital signals and conduct signal processing in the computer. By this way, we can eliminate a bad effect of electromagnetic wave emitted from computer and of 60 Hz noise emitted from AC source. The proposed method is investigated through experimental demonstration. The experimental results show that it improves S/N ratio of the sensor about 40 times in our experimental setup.