Electrochemical force sensor

A fluid pressure sensor comprising:

• a fluid-tight housing, having two ends and a first wall at a first end;
• a flexible diaphragm disposed to form a second wall at a second end of said fluid-tight housing and defining therein a storage chamber for holding a supply of electrochemically active gas;
• a rigidly-supported electrolytic membrane having two sides disposed between said first and second walls to divide the storage chamber into a smaller storage chamber and a sensor chamber;
• at least one pervious electrode disposed on each side of and in contact with the electrolytic membrane to form at least one opposed electrode pair;
• the gas being electrochemically reversibly active so as to enter into an anodic reaction at one side of said at least one electrode pair where the gas molecules are convened to ions transportable through said electrolytic membrane and a cathodic reaction at the opposite side of said at least one electrode pair where said ions are reconverted to gas molecules;
• and
• control means consisting essentially of at least one of the electrode pairs adapted to be responsive to a pressure differential across the electrolytic membrane. means to detect an output voltage from the electrode pair caused by the pressure differential, which means are in electrical communication with said electrode pair, controller means in electrical communication with the detection means which is programmed to cause a current to be provided to said electrolytic membrane in response to, and sufficient to reverse the current supplying the detected output voltage to return the pressure in each of the chambers to a predetermined value.

A force sensor/effector comprising:

• a fluid-tight housing, having two ends and a first wall at a first end;
• a flexible bellows having a contacting surface for transferring an external force to said sensor, said flexible bellows disposed to from a second wall at a second end of said fluid-tight housing and defining therein a storage chamber for holding a supply of electrochemically active gas;
• a rigidly-supported electrolytic membrane having two sides disposed between said first and second walls to divide said storage chamber into a smaller storage chamber and a sensor chamber;
• at least one pervious electrode disposed on each said side of and in contact with the etectrolylic membrane to form at least one opposed electrode pair;
• said gas being electrochemically reversibly active so as to enter into an anodic reaction at one side of said at least one electrode pair where the gas molecules are convened to ions transportable through said electrolytic membrane and a carbonic reaction at the opposite side of said at least one electrode pair where said ions are reconverted to gas molecules;
• and
• control means consisting essentially of at least one of the electrode pairs adapted to be responsive to a pressure differential across the electrolytic membrane, means to detect an output voltage from the electrode pair caused by the pressure differential, which means are in electrical communication with said electrode pair, controller means in electrical communication with the detect fort means which is programmed to cause a current to be provided to said electrolytic membrane in response to, and sufficient to reverse the current supplying the detected output voltage to return the pressure in each of the chambers to a predetermined value.