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I'm considering a potential product but I'm not sure about the core technology I'd need.

The fundamental idea is that there would be a cable (or something similar) that would be pulled. But as it was pulled with X force, the device (mechanically and/or electronically) would provide equal (but slightly less) resistance.

So if it's pulled with 10 pounds, it would respond with (for example) 9 pounds of resistance (so the net result would the cable moving at 1 pound pressure).

But it would also need to react in real-time (more or less instantly), as the pull force would be constantly changing.

Is there already some kind of device that does that I'm not an engineer, more on an entrepreneur, so I'm a bit out of my depth here. Thanks!

Alex Gold
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You can wind your cable around a flywheel connected to a shaft rotating a fan in a high viscosity grease. Like an automatic transmission.

Geared to correct proportion. This mechanism is basically a friction machine but doesn't create much wear and tear.

kamran
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An electronic way is through a servomotor in torque control, where you can adjust the torque dynamically. If there is a sensor measuring the force applied to the cable, it can loop to the controller, adjusting and recalculating torque as needed.

Note that as commented, a continuous force will cause acceleration and with a motor you will possibly have to limit the speed in the control.

A permanent magnet servomotor can have an excellent dynamic response depending on the system, but you can also achieve a control like this with an asynchronous motor with encoder, or with a DC motor, what will define it is your application... like load limits, speed, response dynamics, cost...

Little explanation about Torque Control versus Speed Control

dwpessoa
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