Cedrat Technologies, innovation in mechatronics

Space, military, and industrial applications require precision position sensors in order to perform closed-loop control or to monitor the state of a system. Those applications usually come with constraints such as wide thermal range, long lifetime, high stability, and compactness.

Many applications require long-term position stability, which relates to the notion of absolute precision over time. Until now, the long-term stability of strain gages (SG) for position measurement was questionable. Using its extensive know-how of strain gages integration and new instrumentation equipment, Cedrat Technologies has managed to demonstrate nanometric position stability of a closed-loop piezo-mechanism with integrated strain gages sensors. This technology opens a wide range of new possibilities for industrial, aeronautical, and space applications.

In the context of motion tracking and virtual reality, there is a strong need for sensors to monitor the motion of a moving object. These sensors are characterised by their performances (ranges, accuracy, drifts, and susceptibility to the ambient environment) and embedded (small size, light weight). The magnetic technology compared to the mechanical or optical solution allows the working without structural skeleton composed of links interconnected by monitored joints and with possible optical shadows.

The torque measurement usually comes from strain gauges bonded on a shatf. the main concern in this measurement is due to the fact that these gauges are also rotating and the integration of electronic on rotating parts is definitely a blocking point.

In a contact of always smaller and smarter mechatronics devices, the needs of more integrated sensors becomes critical. Particularly, small mechanisms using small actuators like piezo actuators require compact sensors, with performances that measure up to the actuators characteristics.

This article deals with the use of Magnetic Resonant Sensors (M.R.S) for the realisation of an identification system. Nowadays, the market of I.D. systems evolves versus magnetic tags as they bring some advantages like remote identification and removal of the need of handling.

This article deals with a stress sensor for cables which has been designed, built and test. it is based on a special magnetostrictive effect of ferromagnetic materials as high elastic limit steels used for bridge cables or prestressed concrete.