For the disadvantages of existing six-dimensional force sensor, a new shunted sensor with three rigid compliant hybrid limbs and six standard force sensors was designed and manufactured based on parallel structure for measuring the heavy six-component force/torque. Firstly, a prototype of the developed parallel sensor was built up and its merits were analyzed. A 3D model of the robot hybrid hands with parallel sensor was constructed. A statics equation among the forces of the six standard force sensors and the external workload was established, and a mapped matrix from the workload to forces of the six standard force sensors was derived based on its equivalent parallel mechanism. The theoretical solutions of the parallel sensor stiffness were obtained and verified by the simulation solutions of a FE model. Secondly, structural optimum design of the sensor was carried out based on the genetic algorithm. The best structural parameters of sensor were obtained by analyzing isotropy. Finally, an experiment was performed to obtain the accuracy in each direction by loading weights. The forces of the six standard force sensors of the prototype of parallel sensor were measured by adding different workload components onto the prototype loading platform. The results indicated that the maximun error in each direction of sensor was 1.05% in full scale. The theoretical analysis was verified by finite element method simulating and experimental results. The force/torque of the parallel sensor can be accurately measured under the given external load.