Hardware

Torque Sensor

A torque sensor is a transducer that measures the torque transmitted through a shaft or joint, most commonly via strain gauges on an elastic element, with capacitive and optical deflection-based designs as alternatives. In robotics, joint torque sensors placed at each axis enable joint-level force control and sensitive collision detection, as in the DLR lightweight robot lineage and KUKA iiwa, while six-axis force-torque sensors at the wrist measure full interaction wrenches at the end-effector.

Why it matters for physical AI

Direct torque measurement enables the compliant control and fast contact detection that make robots safe alongside people, and interaction force data enriches demonstrations used to train contact-aware manipulation policies.