Development of biomechatronic devices for measurement of wrenches occuring in animal and human prehension

Biomechatronics and in its context biosensors dedicate their ability to support new applications inspired from nature on automotive, exoskeleton systems, and intelligent robotics, with a combination of technical knowledge, biology, bionics and mechatronics. There is a market trend towards the use of intelligent sensors. The main reasons for this development are increased measurement accuracy, programmability, decreased inventory cost from the larger turndown available, and decreased maintenance costs by selfdiagnostics. On the other hand, for climbing machines biomechatronics discovered important descriptive models of animal locomotion, in which each gross aspect of the animal’s movement is biologically clearly defined except grasping (cf. No. 10 of this book series). Adaptable and ergonomic grips used in cars need a deep and vast supportive knowledge about human grasping. This knowledge only can be won by experimentation in natural prehension. Hands and fingers have to be mapped through sensors to discover and understand the principles of manipulation. We propose a special design of sensor nodes to measure forces and torques in manipulation. Self-evidently, sensor technology should as well be oriented to the fulfillment of the requirements of new applications in industry. It is our deep desire that the sensor proposed finds a place in industrial and automotive applications.