Isolating In-Situ Grip and Push Force Distribution from Hand-Handle Contact Pressure with an Industrial Electric Nutrunner

Frustrated Total Internal Reflection Measurement System for Pilot Inceptor Grip Pressure

Sensing the interaction between the pilot and the control inceptors can provide important information about the pilot's activity during flight, potentially enabling the objective measurement of the pilot workload, the application of preventive actions against loss of situational awareness, and the identification of the insurgence of adverse couplings with the vehicle dynamics. This work presents an innovative pressure-sensing device developed to be seamlessly integrated into the grips of conventional aircraft control inceptors. The sensor, based on frustrated total internal reflection of light, is composed of low-cost elements and can be easily manufactured to be applicable to different hand pressure ranges. The characteristics of the sensor are first demonstrated in laboratory calibration tests. Subsequently, applications in flight simulator testing are presented, focusing on the objective representation of the pilot's instantaneous workload.

Tactile Pressure Sensors Calibration with the Use of High Pressure Zones

A simple and cost-effective calibration procedure for piezoresistive ink tactile pressure sensors is crucial for their use in geotechnical research applications. Such a procedure should be applicable in field conditions and require a minimum amount of equipment. The paper describes a new method for calibrating tactile pressure sensors with 8-bit sensels' output. The method is based on the approximation of a single sensel output and consideration of multiple calibration patches. The advantage of the developed method is using local high-pressure zones in calibration patches. The developed method has been successfully applied in calibration of two 5051-350 Tekscan sensors by means of three dead weights: 2 kg, 5 kg and 10 kg. One calibrated sensor was new, and another one had been previously used in the harsh environment of the ice tank in the experiment with model ice. The calibration curves for these two sensors did not reveal a significant difference. For 72% of the 150 obtained load patches in calibration, the absolute discrepancy of actual and calibrated load occurred to be less than 5%.