Extended impedance control using real and virtual sensors for redundant manipulators

Control of a redundant manipulator based on an impedance-control framework with multiple simultaneous control sources is described. Each control source provides a different behavior type. An application is decomposed into multiple simultaneous behaviors whose resultant behavior will provide the motion necessary to execute the task. The simultaneous control inputs are merged using impedance control to compute a resultant command to the manipulator. The task space of each behavior can have the dimensionality of the mechanism being controlled. Control of a seven-degree-of-freedom manipulator is described here with an available task space for each behavior of dimensionality seven.