Robot Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Illustrated - Profe Saul

284 Chapter 11 Proprioceptive and Environmental Sensing Mechanisms and Devices
Figure 11-14
star layout
Tension spring
other components to keep it centered, like the V-groove device discussed
previously, and some sort of spring to hold the top plate in the groove.
Tension Spring Star
A simple to understand spring-centering layout uses three tension
springs in a star layout (Figure 11-14). The outer ends of the springs are
attached to the chassis and the inner three ends all attach to a plate or
other point on the frame that supports the bumper. This layout is easy to
adjust and very robust. It can be used for robot bumpers that must detect
bumps from all directions, provided there is an array of sensors around
the inner edge of the bumper, setup as a switch-as-hard-stop layout.
This layout requires a damper between the chassis and plate to reduce
wobbling.
Torsion Swing Arm
The torsion or trailing arm car suspension system (Figure 11-15) first
appeared in the early 1930s and was used for more than 25 years on the