A switching notch filter for reducing the torque ripple caused by a harmonic drive in a joint torque sensor

Harmonic drives have been widely used in combination with joint torque sensors in order to facilitate accurate manipulator control. A harmonic drive causes a torque ripple because of its structural characteristics, and this torque ripple tends to deteriorate the performance of a controller or observer that uses torque sensors. This paper proposes a switching notch filter for reducing the torque ripple caused by a harmonic drive in a joint torque sensor; the functioning of this filter is based on the relationship between the frequency components of the torque ripple and the rotational velocity of the harmonic drive. The proposed switching notch filter is advantageous in that it requires less computational load and does not necessitate additional circuits or structures. Various experiments demonstrate that the proposed filter has good filtering performance, fast response, and good switching stability.