Additively Manufactured Inductive Sensor for Translational Motion in Robotic Applications

The following contribution presents a fully additively manufactured inductive displacement sensor applied to a model of a translationally movable robot flange. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of 3D-printed coils, the focus is particularly on their inductive properties and the variation of inductance as a function of translational displacement. For this purpose, two coils are entirely additively manufactured and integrated into the flange of a 3D-printed robot model. Through translational movement of the flange, the overlap between the two opposing coils changes, enabling position detection by measuring the series inductance. The advantage of such additively manufactured approaches lies in their adaptability to diverse application requirements and their capability to realize complex geometries.