High sensitive and large area force plate for ground reaction force measurement of ant running

Kohyama, Sumihiro; Takahashi, Hidetoshi; Takahata, Tomoyuki

doi:10.1109/memsys.2018.8346695

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The H. Takahashi and I. Shimoyama group developed a MEMS force plate for a walking ant [ 29 ]. They focused on the z-axis vertical GRF during running and, thus, designed a MEMS force plate that could detect only the z-axis force with high sensitivity.…”

Section: Measurement Of the Grf/gafmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At this moment, the total value was close to zero. The measured GRF was thought to be one of the characteristics of an ant, including the low vibration of the total GRF, which was indicated by one large force plate [ 29 ].…”

Section: Measurement Of the Grf/gafmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, measurement science and technology, utilizing, for example, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), has been developed, and we can easily obtain a tool to measure tiny forces [ 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Accordingly, using MEMS-based force sensors, recent studies have reported direct methods for measuring the force exerted by small animals, such as insects, which was difficult in previous studies [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 ]. In these studies, the force sensor itself has been specially developed for the target insect, including the sensor size and structure, force range and resolution, time resolution, resonant frequency, and so on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MEMS-Based Micro Sensors for Measuring the Tiny Forces Acting on Insects

Takahashi

2022

Sensors

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Small insects perform agile locomotion, such as running, jumping, and flying. Recently, many robots, inspired by such insect performance, have been developed and are expected to be smaller and more maneuverable than conventional robots. For the development of insect-inspired robots, understanding the mechanical dynamics of the target insect is important. However, evaluating the dynamics via conventional commercialized force sensors is difficult because the exerted force and insect itself are tiny in strength and size. Here, we review force sensor devices, especially fabricated for measuring the tiny forces acting on insects during locomotion. As the force sensor, micro-force plates for measuring the ground reaction force and micro-force probes for measuring the flying force have mainly been developed. In addition, many such sensors have been fabricated via a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) process, due to the process precision and high sensitivity. In this review, we focus on the sensing principle, design guide, fabrication process, and measurement method of each sensor, as well as the technical challenges in each method. Finally, the common process flow of the development of specialized MEMS sensors is briefly discussed.

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Section: Measurement Of the Grf/gafmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measurement Of the Grf/gafmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MEMS-Based Micro Sensors for Measuring the Tiny Forces Acting on Insects

Takahashi

2022

Sensors

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“…A large force plate has also been developed to measure the total monoaxial GRF of an ant in MEMS fabrication. Plate sizes over 10 mm and force resolutions less than 1 µN were achieved [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…For example, force plates for humans have been studied widely in the fields of sports science or rehabilitation [4][5][6][7][8][9]. In recent years, many researchers have been measuring GRF, including the use of ground adhesion force (GAF), in animals with specialized force plates [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. In particular, the GRF measurement of tiny insects is expected to be helpful for designing micro running robots.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement method of a microspring-supported force plate with an external laser displacement meter

Sugimoto¹,

Kawasaki²,

Toda³

et al. 2022

Meas. Sci. Technol.

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Ground reaction force (GRF) is a significant factor for the evaluation of animal locomotion. Recently, micro force plates have been implemented as the GRF measurement method for tiny insects. Previous micro force plates were highly sensitive but fragile and laborious to fabricate because of the use of strain-sensing elements. Here, we applied high-resolution 3D printing and a noncontact displacement meter to a micro force plate for a fruit fly. A force plate structure with 3D supporting microsprings is fabricated with easy and reproducible micro 3D printing, enabling both high sensitivity and toughness. By detecting the displacement of the plate centre externally, the vertical GRF when a fruit fly lands on the plate surface is calculated via the spring constant as the whole device. The spring constant of the microspring is designed to be approximately 5.98 N/m so that a high-resolution external laser displacement meter realizes a force resolution less than 1/50 of the body weight of a fruit fly. Providing that the four springs have the same spring constant and the displacement meter aligns at the plate centre, there is no positional error when converting from displacement to force in principle. However, the fabrication error leads to the spring constant difference. Here, we theoretically and experimentally determined the measurement point of the distance sensor where the positional error caused by the difference in spring constant of the four microsprings is compensated. It was confirmed that the calibration process improved the position error to be within ±1.5% in the experiment. Finally, we demonstrated the GRF measurement of a fruit fly. The average GRF was 6.5 μN, which was equal to the weight of a fruit fly. Our proposed device can help evaluate the biomechanics of tiny insects.

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