Force Sensor and High Voltage Test Environment

Community Chit Chat
1

Hey!

So for my PhD I am carrying out characteristic studies on some soft robotic actuators. At the moment (though I hope to change this), they require high voltage actuation (~5-25kV). Talking to my supervisor a key point of concern is that the cable of sensor is could not be sufficiently insolated for a high voltage environment.

I was wondering if I could get some advice on this?

Key points to note are that the sensor will not be in direct contact, likely 10-20cm away from the actuator where the high voltage electrodes are. The main fear is an induced voltage in the cell.

Thanks in advance for any help.

2

What kind of force sensor?

Conventional wisdom would call for shielding.

However, that’s pretty close proximity and awfully high voltage.

Do you expect arching?

Do you need to measure during the actuation or just before and after?

3

I don’t know if it’s possible with your particular sensor but if you’re able to wrap the sensor with copper tape and put the sensors cable inside some braided copper tubing you could ground the foil and tubing. That should keep any HV and RF noise away from the sensor.

4

If the actuators are piezo-based, the high voltage connections should not be exposed or unshielded. Design considerations here: https://piezo.com/pages/piezoelectric-actuators