Irene Yang
University of Edinburgh
Aug 10, 2023
Period
- 2022
Testimonial
I work as a postdoctoral research fellow in orthopaedic engineering. I have built a custom rig that I was then looking for a multi-axial load cell that was affordable and that was easy to use. A fellow researcher in robotics recommended that I get in touch with BOTA Systems, a robotics company that also focuses on force sensing applications. I was immediately contacted by a BOTA representative, who promptly briefed me on a great range of load cells. They also met with me multiple times to help integrate the BOTA Medusa multi-axial load cell with my rig and existing code, custom design all required accessories. I was incredibly impressed with the "ease of use" of the highly integrated product, accessories, software and customer support, the incredible value for money and would highly recommend BOTA Systems force sensors and the team.
Verified user
Mar 2, 2023
Period
- 2021
Title
I used this sensor in a custom-built testbed for measuring wheel-soil interaction forces.
Pro
The sensor was easy to mount and use, and support from the team was excellent when I had software issues. It was easy to use the sensor with ROS, and the data quality was very good.
Con
The sensor takes 30-45 minutes to warm up to a steady temperature, and force measurements drift with temp, so you have to turn on the machine well in advance of data collection. The cable that came with our sensor was also fragile and needed to have strain relief added.
Giulio Cerruti
Caranx-Medical
Feb 22, 2023
Period
- 2022
Robot
LBR iiwa 14 R820 KUKA + BFT-MEDS-SER-M8 (Medusa 6-axis FT sensor with side serial interface)
Title
Application: autonomously guide an ultrasound probe connected at the end-effector of a robotic manipulator. In order to guarantee continuous ultrasound feedback I required to ensure contact between the ultrasound probe and the patient skin. At first I used the estimated force/torque feedback provided by the KUKA arm, but then I preferred to move to a FT sensor placed before the ultrasound probe so to have an accurate and configuration independent force/torque feedback. This also allowed us to implement a force closed loop for autonomous scanning that is independent from the robotic manipulator adopted.
Pro
The sensor is compact, light, has a wider range (and a higher noise free resolution) along the z axis and it's very accurate. All the filtering is already performed on the sensor side and the signal obtained is ready to be used in the user application. It is easy to setup and it's directly compatible with ROS.
I would add that customer service has been always very friendly, reactive and effective.
Con
Absence of documentation particularly for the firmware side. I needed to have a call with the developers to understand how to properly configure the sensor for my application (and it is still a little obscure to me). It would be really helpful to have more information. Similarly, FT calibration, gravity compensation are out of the box but requires some work to be properly put in place. Inertial compensation was missing at the time I integrated the sensor in the system. It would be a nice feature to add if still not present.
Firas Abi Farraj
ETH
Feb 2, 2023
Period
- 2022
Robot
ANYmal from ANYbotics which we modified with an arm on top
Title
I was implementing a teleoperation algorithm with force feedback for teleoperating a robot arm on a quadroped robot. That was part of the ANA Avatar Xprize challenge. The force feedback from joint torques was noisy and we needed a force sensor which is solid enough to handle harsh hits and accurate enough at the same time.
Pro
The sensor is extremely robust. It handles harsh falls (quadrupeds fall badly and ours is 60 Kg) and still works without issues after re-calibration. It is built to last even in rough environments. I rarely had issues with it even when operating it for several hours in the sun.
Con
A rugged protection for the cable connector could help especially for applications like mine. It is the only thing which could break in the sensor.
Yuki Shirai
University of California, Los Angeles
Feb 2, 2023
Period
- 2022
Robot
SCALER: Spine-enhanced Climbing Autonomous Limbed Exploration Robot, from UCLA
Title
We used this sensor in order to achieve force control for the purpose of free-climbing. Our robot consists of multiple position-controlled motors and to achieve closed-loop force control, we need to have reliable force / torque sensors. However, as far as I know, there are not so many force / torque sensors which are so rubust. I know there are great sensors whose sensor accuracy is super good. However, if you simply attach those sensors to the end-effector of legged robots, they can easily be broken. However, the force torque sensors from BOTA are very robust. We did a number of experiments (more than in total 50 hours I guess) with trot gait of 8 kg robots but still they are not broken. Also the accuracy is very reasonable, which enables us to design good state and contact estimator for legged robots. Using BOTA FT sensors, our robot is now able to achieve closed-loop control with force and torque feedback. I really enjoy using them.
Pro
I would say the toughness. This sensor is so tough so that under various impulse experiments, the sensor has never been broken. Also, sometime, we accidently drop the sensors but still they are quite tough. I also have never seen inaccurate measurements of the sensors. If you are interested in using force torque sensors for tough condition, I think this is the right sensor you should consider.
Con
Even though they have a great ROS package for running the sensors, sometimes we want to use the sensors directly by compiling the source. However, unfortunately, it never works. Also, they have public codes on their gitlab but it is a bit difficult to understand what is going on since there are not many explanations.