Simulation chain for sensorized strain wave gears

Abstract

Strain wave gears (SWG) are commonly used as speed reducers in robot joints. The output torque of these gears can be determined without external measurement equipment by evaluating the signals of strain gauge sensors mounted on the flex spline. This paper presents a simulation chain to compute these sensor signals with the intention to provide a model based approach to study faults in SWGs. It consists of a model describing the dynamic behavior of the gear, a space truss to compute the deformation of the flex spline, and a model for strain gauge sensors mounted on the flex spline. The comparison to experimental data shows the validity of the proposed approach. Moreover, selected faults are injected into the simulation chain and their impact is discussed.