Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462

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Mechatronics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mechatronics

Improvement of strain gauges micro-forces measurement using Kalman

optimal ltering
Y. Haddab *, Q. Chen, P. Lutz
FEMTO-ST Institute, UMR CNRS 6174 UFC/ENSMM/UTBM, Automatic Control and Micro-Mechatronic Systems Department, 24, rue Alain Savary, 25000 Besanon, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: Manipulation of small components and assembly of microsystems require force measurement. In the
Micro-force measurement microworld (the world of very small components), signal/noise ratio is very low due to the weak ampli-
Measurement noise
tude of the signals. To be used in feedback control or in a micromanipulation system, a force sensor must
Kalman lter
allow static and dynamic measurements. In this paper, we present a micro-force measurement system
Piezoelectric cantilevers
Strain gauges based on the use of strain gauges and a Kalman optimal lter. Using a model of the measurement system
and a statistical description of the noise, the optimal lter allows ltering the noise without loss of
dynamic measurement. The performances of the measurement system are improved and fast force vari-
ations can be measured.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction on the device and their performances depend on the characteristics

Force measurement is very important to perform manipulation
and micro-assembly tasks in the microworld. Small components
are often fragile and may be damaged or destroyed if they are
grasped without force control. Size reduction makes it difcult to
build and integrate very small force sensors. However, in the last
decade, various methods have been used in order to measure the
force applied on the manipulated objects. Generally, micro-forces
are evaluated from a deformation measurement of a small device
(cantilever, membrane, etc.) whose stiffness is known. This defor-
mation is measured using a position sensor.
According to the resolution wanted, various effects can be used
[10]. For measurements below 0.1 lN, piezoelectric materials, in
particular PVDF (polyvinylidene uoride) are often used. These
materials give high resolutions but do not allow static measure-
ments because of the electrical discharge. Fung et al. integrated
PVDF sensors into commercial probes in order to characterize
MUMPs (Multi-user MEMS Processes)[3]. Microfabricated electro-
static sensors are characterized by a good linearity and are able to
measure forces as great as 25 lN with a resolution as small as
10 nN. For better resolutions, optical sensors can be used. AFM
(atomic force microscope) cantilevers with laser sensor permit
force measurements in the nanometer range. Arai et al., detected
forces as small as 3 pN using mechanical characteristics of a cali-
brated carbon nanotube probe whose deformation is measured
by a FE-SEM (eld emission scanning electron microscope) [1].
Small strain gauges are also very often used. They can be glued
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 (0)381 402 808; fax: +33 (0)381 402 809.
E-mail address: yassine.haddab@femto-st.fr (Y. Haddab).
of the deformable device. Cantilevers with a length in the centime-
ter range allow resolutions in the mN range and microfabricated
cantilevers can reach lN resolutions.
To be used in feedback control or in a micromanipulation sys-
tem, a force sensor must allow static and dynamic measurements.
PVDF materials are not suitable for static measurements. Capaci-
tive sensors are very sensitive but give limited stroke. Optical
sensors are often external sensors and are not adapted for embed-
ded applications or conned environments. Strain gauges consti-
tute low-cost easily integrated sensors and represent good
candidates for multi-purposes micro-forces measurement.
A general approach consists in gluing one or more gauges on a
cantilever close to the xed end for best sensitivity. When a force is
applied at the tip, the deformation induces a resistance change in
the gauges.
Kemper designed a microgripper equipped with a strain gauge
[7]. The force measurement resolution is 2 mN. Nasir et al. devel-
oped a multi-DOF microfabricated force sensor based on the piezo-
resistive effect in order to measure insect ight forces [13]. The
sensor has a lN range resolution. Woods et al. used piezoresistive
gauges to measure ight force of a micromechanical ying insect
[15]. Dao et al. designed, fabricated and calibrated a 6-degree of
freedom forcemoment micro sensing chip utilizing the piezoresis-
tance effect in silicon [2]. Kim et al. implemented a piezoresistive
MEMS cantilever for force measurement in micro/nano robotic
applications. For a limited stroke, the resolution obtained is better
than 1 nN [8].
Many other papers reported successful implementation of
strain gauges for force measurement. However, the performances
presented are often based on a theoretical resolution combining

0957-4158/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mechatronics.2008.11.012
458 Y. Haddab et al. / Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462
a high gain amplier, a high resolution ADC (analog to digital con-
verter) and a very low-pass lter. In real microsystems, signal/
noise ratio is very low due to the weak amplitudes of the signals
for high resolution measurements. Low-pass ltering allows high
resolution measurements of static and slowly varying forces but
fast forces are ltered. This is a severe limitation for the use in high
performance controlled micromanipulators.
In this paper, we present a micro-force measurement system
based on the use of strain gauges and a Kalman optimal lter.
Using a model of the measurement system and a statistical
description of the noise, the optimal lter allows ltering the noise
without loss of dynamic measurement. The performances of the
measurement system are improved and fast force variations can
be measured. This measurement system is well adapted for critical
applications where dynamic error must be low.
First, the designed system is described. Second, both static and
dynamic characterizations are performed and a model is built.
After that, Force measurement results using strain gauges are pre-
sented. A Kalman optimal lter is then implemented and measure-
ment results are given. Finally the performances of the optimal
lter are discussed.
2. Description of the system
The system designed for this study is used to perform microma-
nipulation tasks. It is made up of two parts (see Fig. 1). The rst one
is a linear motor from PiezoMotor. This motor uses piezoelectric
actuators in stick-slip mode and is characterized by a resolution
of 10 nm and a stroke of 35 mm. The second one is a piezoelectric
bimorph cantilever equipped with electrodes. The dimensions of
this cantilever are: 16 mm  2 mm  0.5 mm. When a voltage is
applied across the electrodes, the cantilever bends.
The whole system constitute a half of a gripper and the tip of
the cantilever is used to handle a micro-object.
Two small strain gauges from ENTRAN are glued on the two
faces of the cantilever close to the xed end (see Fig. 2). They are
used for force measurement. The dimensions of the gauges are:
1.27 mm  0.38 mm.
3. Identication of the system
The designed system allows us to use both parts as actuator: the
linear motor for high stroke/high resolution displacements and the
piezoelectric cantilever to perform fast displacements. However in
our study, we use the cantilever equipped with the strain gauges
only as a force sensor. Moreover we will not study the control of
the linear motor.
Piezoelectric Strain gauges
cantilever
Linear motor
(PiezoMotor)
1 cm
Fig. 1. Constitution of the designed system.
2 mm
cantilever
16 mm
Strain
gauges
Fig. 2. Bending cantilever equipped with strain gauges.
electrodes
PZT layers
V
F
direction of
polarization
Fig. 3. Input/output signals of the piezoelectric cantilever.
When a force is applied at the tip of the cantilever, it bends
causing the deformation of the gauges. Assuming small deforma-
tions and a calibration, the measurement of the displacement of
the tip allow us to measure the applied force.
3.1. Static characterization
First, a calibration of the cantilever is done. Calibrated weights
are used to apply forces at the tip of the cantilever and the dis-
placement is measured by a high resolution (10 nm) laser sensor
from KEYENCE. The results show a good linearity and a compli-
ance of 1.23 lm/mN.
3.2. Dynamic characterization
Static force measurement is useful to evaluate the force applied
by the gripper or the compliance of a micro-object. However dy-
namic force measurement is required to perform dexterous manip-
ulation of fragile micro-objects.
The piezoelectric cantilever can be considered as a two inputs
one output system (see Fig. 3). The two inputs are the force F ap-
plied at the tip and the voltage V applied on the electrodes and
the output is the deection d.
For small displacements, the behavior of the cantilever can be
considered as linear. It has been shown [4] that the dynamic rela-
tionship between F and d and between V and d are similar.
The three signals are linked by the following equation:
ds k1 GsFs k2 GsVs; 1
where s is the Laplace variable, F(s) and V(s) are the Laplace trans-
forms of F(t) and V(t), G(s) is a transfer function describing the dy-
 Y. Haddab et al. / Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462 459

namic behavior of the cantilever, k1 and k2 are the static gains be- 1.2
tween F and d, and V and d, respectively.
From the previous static characterization, we can deduce that
1
k1 1:23  103 m=N: 2
The gain k2 can be easily identied by applying voltages and 0.8
measuring the deection using the laser sensor

k2 9:17  107 m=V: 3 0.6

Vout(V)
In order to determine G(s), a voltage step is applied and the step re-
sponse is recorded using the laser sensor (see Fig. 4). 0.4

Using ARMAX identication algorithm, a discrete transfer func-

tion G(z) is obtained 0.2
3 2
0:03790z  0:07201z 0:03941z
Gz : 4
z4  2:75595z3 2:50860z2  0:70475z  0:04258 0

With a sampling period of

-0.2
T s 4  105 s: -0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
time(s)

4. Force measurement using strain gauges Fig. 6. Measured voltage Vout in response to a voltage step of 15 V.

In order to measure the force, the two strain gauges glued sym-
metrically on the cantilever are included in a Wheatstone bridge.
higher signal/noise ratio. In order to obtain a good signal, the stan-
This conguration results in better thermal compensation and
dard bonding process (specied by the manufacturer) must be
strictly respected. Two other resistors are used to complete the
bridge, an amplier is used to increase the voltage level and the
signal is ltered using a low-pass lter (see Fig. 5). The 4 V supply
x 10
-5
voltage has been chosen according to the characteristics of the
2.5 gauges. The amplier has a gain of 51.3 and the cutoff frequency
of the lter is 3100 Hz which is more than four times greater than
2
the resonant frequency of the cantilever.
As the dynamic behavior is similar for a force input and a volt-
age input, in order to characterize the measurement system, we
1.5 have chosen to use a voltage step because it is easier to apply.
Fig. 6 shows the measured voltage in response to a voltage step
delta(m)

of 15 V. The measurement system using strain gauges (calibrated

1 using the laser sensor) has a transfer of 52344.6 V/m. The calibra-
tion of the measurement system has been done with the laser
sensor.
0.5
From the previous step response and the modelization, we no-
tice that the passband of the measurement system is sufcient to
0 reproduce the dynamic behaviour of the cantilever. However, we
notice that the level of the measurement noise is high and it limits
the measurements accuracy. Due to the noise, force measurement
-0.5 can be affected by a maximum error of 1.98 mN in the worst case.
-0.01 0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08
time(s) This noise can be attenuated by reducing the cutoff frequency of
the lter but it will result in a loss of dynamic measurement.
Fig. 4. Step response of the cantilever according to a voltage step of 15 V.

5. Kalman ltering

In order to lter the measurement noise without loss of dy-

4V
namic measurement, a discrete Kalman optimal lter is imple-
gauge mented. Several authors have reported successful use of a
R
Kalman lter for force estimation or noise reduction, mainly in
macroscopic systems. In Katupitiya et al. [6], a Kalman lter has
Vout been used for identication of contact and grasping uncertainties
Amplifier Filter
and for monitoring of force controlled assembly operations. Ma
gauge R et al. [11] and Liu et al. [9] have used a Kalman Filter to estimate
forces applied on beam structures. In Nilsson et al. [14], a Kalman
Filter is used to help controlling the position of exible mobile
manipulators.
In this section, we present a state space model of the noisy pro-
Fig. 5. Setup for force measurement using strain gauges. cess, the design of the Kalman lter and the obtained results.
460 Y. Haddab et al. / Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462

5.1. State space modeling and Kalman ltering x 10

-6
2

From the transfer function G(z), a discrete-time state space

1.5
model is obtained. Only one input is considered (the voltage V)
X k1 A  X k B  V k 1
5
dk C  X k ;
0.5
where X is the state vector, V is the input voltage, d is the deection

delta (m)
0 1 0 1
0 1 0 0 0 0
B 0 0 1 0 C B0C
B C B C
AB C; B B C; -0.5
@ 0 0 0 1 A @0A
0:04258 0:70475 2:50860 2:75595 1 -1
 
C 0 3:6139  108 6:60332  108 3:47543  108 :
-1.5
6
If we consider the measurement and the process noises, the sys- -2
tem can be represented by the following linear stochastic -0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
time (s)
equation:
Fig. 8. Measurement noise.
X k1 A  X k B  V k wk
7
dk C  X k v k
where w and v represent the process and measurement noises, 700
respectively.
Assuming that the noises are independent from each other,
600
white and with normal probability distributions, a discrete Kalman
lter provides an efcient recursive method to estimate the state of
the process (and therefore the output) in a way that minimizes the 500
number of samples

mean of the squared error. Fig. 7 presents the general structure of

the estimation process. X ^ k and ^
dk are the estimated state and out- 400
put respectively. The algorithm is based on repetition of two steps:
time update and measurement update. 300
In the time update (predict) step, the lter estimates the next
state (a priori) of the process according to the current state and er-
200
ror covariance.
In the measurement update (correct) step, the measurement is
taken into account in order to obtain an improved state estimate (a 100
posteriori).
More details on the implementation of the Kalman lter are gi- 0
ven in [5,12]. -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2
delta (m) -6
x 10
5.2. Noise characterization
Fig. 9. Distribution of the measurement noise.

In order to characterize the noise, we assume that:

The process noise is mainly due to the input V (noise produced -50
by the voltage generator).
The process and measurement noises are independent from
each other because they are generated by different devices. -100

-150
magnitude (dB)

-200
Vk Process k

-250
Kalman X k
filter C k
-300

Characteristics of the -350

process and measurement 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
noises frequency (Hz)

Fig. 7. Estimation of the process state and output using a Kalman lter. Fig. 10. Spectrum of the measurement noise.
 Y. Haddab et al. / Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462 461

-6 -6
x 10 x 10
20

1.5

15
1
measured
10 0.5
delta (m)

delta (m)
0
5

-0.5
0 estimated
-1

-5
-0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 -11 -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2
time (s) time (s) -3
x 10

Fig. 11. Measured deection d in response to a voltage step of 15 V. Fig. 13. Comparison between the measured deection d and the estimated
deection ^
d in static mode.

-6
x 10
20 x 10
-5
1.55

15 1.5
estimated
1.45
10
delta (m)

delta (m)

1.4

5
1.35

1.3
0

1.25 measured
-5
-0.02 0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1
time (s) 0.04 0.042 0.044 0.046 0.048 0.05
time (s)
Fig. 12. Estimated deection ^
d using Kalman ltering in response to a voltage step
of 15 V. Fig. 14. Comparison between the measured deection d and the estimated
deection ^
d in dynamic mode.

5.2.1. Measurement noise

The measurement noise is recorded using the strain gauges noise. It has shown similar characteristics to those of measurement
measurement system when no input is applied (see Fig. 8). noise (Gaussian, centered and white) with a variance of
Fig. 9 shows that the measurement noise has a Gaussian distri- 8.14  109.
bution with a mean of 0 and a variance of 9.02  1014.
The spectrum of the noise, shown in Fig. 10, allows us consider
the measurement noise as a white noise. 5.3. Results

5.2.2. Process noise
The process noise is assumed to be mainly due to the input
noise.
wk B  v nk :
In the previous equation, vnk is the input noise.
vnk is measured at the input when a zero input is applied.
(zero input means that the generator is connected to the system
and therefore the noise produced is applied at the input of the sys-
tem). The same analysis was performed to characterize the input
In this section we present the results of the implementation of
the Kalman Filter. In the algorithm, the process noise covariance
(covariance of wk) and the measurement noise covariance (covari-
ance of vk) are calculated from noise characteristics.
8
Figs. 11 and 12 show the measured deection and the estimated
deection using Kalman ltering (respectively) in response to a
voltage step of 15 V. These results show that Kalman ltering
allow obtaining a signicant decrease of measurement noise (see
Fig. 13) without loss of dynamic behaviour measurement (see
Fig. 14).
462 Y. Haddab et al. / Mechatronics 19 (2009) 457462
From Fig. 13, we can see that the measurement noise amplitude
is decreased 40 times and then force measurement can be affected
by a maximum error of 50 lN.
In the current results, we have considered the voltage input and
the noise produced by the voltage generator. Considering the force
input will lead to similar approach as the behaviour of the cantile-
ver is similar. However, exact performance of the Kalman ltering
will depend on the force noise level. This noise depends on the ob-
ject in contact with the cantilever tip. In a practical case, the force
noise should be evaluated prior to real-time Kalman ltering. Mea-
surement and process noises characterisation can also be periodi-
cally updated for best performances. These noises can vary if the
working conditions are different or if the gripper is used in differ-
ent environments.
6. Conclusion and future work
Force measurement is very important for the success of manip-
ulation and assembly of small components and devices. In this pa-
per, a measurement system based on the use of strain gauges has
been implemented. Strain gauges are low-cost, easy to integrate
sensors for force measurement.
Because of the weak amplitude of the forces in the microworld,
signal/noise ratio is low. Moreover, closed loop control of microma-
nipulators requires dynamic force measurement. A Kalman optimal
lter has been implemented in order to lter the measurement
noise and allow measurement of dynamic forces. The use of a
Kalman lter allows signicant performance improvement.
In the future, the cantilever will be used in a microgripper and
the strain gauges and the Kalman lter will be used to estimate
the force applied on the manipulated micro-objects. Various manip-
ulation and transportation tasks will be performed in different envi-
ronmental conditions and the results compared. Moreover, the
ability to use the piezoelectric cantilever as actuator and as force
sensor opens new perspectives for integrated force/position control.
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