Research on the Influence of Temperature on the Stress–Electromagnetic Characterization of Radiation-Resistant Robotic Drive Steel Cables

During the operation of steel cable-driven radiation-resistant robots in nuclear industrial environments, the tensile force of a steel cable is influenced by temperature variations, which can cause significant detection errors. To address this problem, this study proposes a temperature-compensated axial force characterization method for steel cables based on the magnetoelastic effect, aiming to ensure the measurement accuracy of magnetoelastic sensors. The principle of the magnetoelastic measurement method involves magnetizing the steel cable. When subjected to tensile forces, the magnetization characteristics of the steel cable change, thereby altering the detection signal of the magnetoelastic sensor. By analyzing the relationship between steel cable tension and variations in the detection signal, effective force measurement can be achieved. First, experiments are conducted to investigate the influence of temperature on the detection signals of a magnetoelastic sensor under zero-load conditions. Then, additional tests are performed to examine the combined effects of a tensile force and temperature on the sensor's signals. Finally, based on the experimental data, axial force prediction models are constructed using both surface fitting and a backpropagation neural network (BPNN). The results demonstrate that, compared to the resistance values, inductance exhibits superior stability under temperature variations. In the temperature range of 20-50 °C, the inductance variation is approximately 0.15 μH, which indicates improved suitability for characterizing the axial force of steel cables. It is also shown that under isothermal conditions, the inductance increases linearly with the applied tensile force, exhibiting a slope of approximately 0.025 μH/kN. Both the surface fitting-based and BPNN-based axial force prediction models demonstrate high accuracy, with absolute prediction errors consistently below 5% compared to actual data.