Impedance control with on-line neural-network compensator for robot contact tasks

In this paper, a force-tracking impedance controller with an on-line neural-network compensator is shown to be able to track a reference force in the presence of unknown environmental dynamics. The controller can be partitioned into three parts. The computed torque method is used to linearize and decouple the dynamics of a manipulator. An impedance controller is then added to regulate the mechanical impedance between the manipulator and its environment. In order to track a reference force signal, an on-line neural network is used to compensate the effect of unknown parameters of the manipulator and environment.     

Robust adaptive motion/force tracking control design for uncertain constrained robot manipulators

In the presence of uncertain constraint and robot model, an adaptive controller with robust motion/force tracking performance for constrained robot manipulators is proposed. First, robust motion and force tracking is considered, where a performance criterion containing disturbance and estimated parameter attenuations is presented. Then the proposed controller utilizes an adaptive scheme and an auxiliary control law to deal with the uncertain environmental constraint, disturbances, and robotic modeling uncertainties. After solving a simple linear matrix inequality for gain conditions, the effect from disturbance and estimated parameter errors to motion/force errors is attenuated to an arbitrary prescribed level. Moreover, if the disturbance and estimated parameter errors are square-integrable, then an asymptotic motion tracking is achieved while the force error is as small as the inversion of control gain. Finally, numerical simulation results for a constrained planar robot illustrate the expected performance.     

A contact force solution for non-colliding contact dynamics simulation

Rigid-body impact modeling remains an intensive area of research spurred on by new applications in robotics, biomechanics, and more generally multibody systems. By contrast, the modeling of non-colliding contact dynamics has attracted significantly less attention. The existing approaches to solve non-colliding contact problems include compliant approaches in which the contact force between objects is defined explicitly as a function of local deformation, and complementarity formulations in which unilateral constraints are employed to compute contact interactions (impulses or forces) to enforce the impenetrability of the contacting objects. In this article, the authors develop an alternative approach to solve the non-colliding contact problem for objects of arbitrary geometry in contact at multiple points. Similarly to the complementarity formulation, the solution is based on rigid-body dynamics and enforces contact kinematics constraints at the acceleration level. Differently, it leads to an explicit closed-form solution for the normal forces at the contact points. Integral to the proposed formulation is the treatment of tangential contact forces, in particular the static friction. These friction forces must be calculated as a function of microslip velocity or displacement at the contact point. Numerical results are presented for four test cases: (1) a thin rod sliding down a stationary wedge; (2) a cube pushed off a wedge by an applied force; (3) a cube rotating off the wedge under application of an external moment; and (4) the cube and the wedge both moving under application of a moment. To ascertain validity and correctness, the solutions to frictionless and frictional scenarios obtained with the new formulation are compared to those generated by using a commercial simulation tool MSC ADAMS.     

Adaptive-backstepping force/motion control for mobile-manipulator robot based on fuzzy CMAC neural networks

In this paper, an adaptive backstepping fuzzy cerebellar-model-articulation-control neural-networks control （ABFCNC） system for motion/force control of the mobile-manipulator robot （MMR） is proposed. By applying the ABFCNC in the tracking-position controller, the unknown dynamics and parameter variation problems of the MMR control system are relaxed. In addition, an adaptive robust compensator is proposed to eliminate uncertainties that consist of approximation errors, uncertain disturbances. Based on the tracking position-ABFCNC design, an adaptive robust control strategy is also developed for the nonholonomicconstraint force of the MMR. The design of adaptive-online learning algorithms is obtained by using the Lyapunov stability theorem. Therefore, the proposed method proves that it not only can guarantee the stability and robustness but also the tracking performances of the MMR control system. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control system are verified by comparative simulation results.     

Motion planning and contact control for a tele-assisted hydraulic underwater robot

Implementing tele-assistance or supervisory control for autonomous subsea robots requires atomic actions that can be called from high level task planners or mission managers. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a particular atomic action for the case of a subsea robot carrying out tasks in contact with the surrounding environment.Subsea vehicles equipped with manipulators can have upward of 11 degrees of freedom (DOF), with degenerate and redundant inverse kinematics. Distributed local motion planning is presented as a means to specify the motion of each robot DOF given a goal point or trajectory. Results are presented to show the effectiveness of the distributed versus non-distributed approach, a means to deal with local minima difficulties, and the performance for trajectory following with and without saturated joint angles on a robot arm.Consideration is also given to the modelling of hydraulic underwater robots and to the resulting design of hybrid position/force control strategies. A model for a hydraulically actuated robot is developed, taking into account the electrohydraulic servovalve, the bulk modulus of oil, piston area, friction, hose compliance and other arm parameters. Open and closed-loop control results are reported for simulated and real systems.Finally, the use of distributed motion planning and sequential position/force control of a Slingsby TA-9 hydraulic underwater manipulator is described, to implement an atomic action for tele-assistance. The specific task of automatically positioning and inserting a Tronic subsea mateable connector is illustrated, with results showing the contact conditions during insertion.     

Beat gesture recognition and finger motion control of a piano playing robot for affective interaction of the elderly

This paper introduces a piano playing robot in views of smart house and assistive robot technology to care the affective states of the elderly. We address the current issues in this research area and propose a piano playing robot as a solution. For affective interaction based on music, we first present a beat gesture recognition method to synchronize the tempo of a robot playing a piano with the desired tempo of the user. To estimate the period of an unstructured beat gesture expressed by any part of a body or an object, we apply an optical flow method, and use the trajectories of the center of gravity and normalized central moments of moving objects in images. In addition, we also apply a motion control method by which robotic fingers are trained to follow a set of trajectories. Since the ability to track the trajectories influences the sound a piano generates, we adopt an iterative learning control method to reduce the tracking error.     

Adaptive hybrid force/position control of robot manipulators using an adaptive force estimator in the presence of parametric uncertainty

This study is devoted to sensorless adaptive force/position control of robot manipulators using a position-based adaptive force estimator (AFE) and a force-based adaptive environment compliance estimator. Unlike the other sensorless method in force control that uses disturbance observer and needs an accurate model of the manipulator, in this method, the unknown parameters of the robot can be estimated along with the force control. Even more, the environment compliance can be estimated simultaneously to achieve tracking force control. In fact, this study deals with three challenging problems: No force sensor is used, environment stiffness is unknown, and some parametric uncertainties exist in the robot model. A theorem offers control laws and updating laws for two control loops. In the inner loop, AFE estimates the exerted force, and then, the force control law in the outer loop modifies the desired trajectory of the manipulator for the adaptive tracking loop. Besides, an updating law updates the estimated compliance to provide an accurate tracking force control. Some experimental results of a PHANToM Premium robot are provided to validate the proposed scheme. In addition, some simulations are presented that verify the performance of the controller for different situations in interaction.     

An output feedback parallel force/position regulator for a robot manipulator in contact with a compliant environment

In this paper the problem of regulating force and position for a robot manipulator in contact with an elastically compliant environment is considered. In the framework of parallel force/position control, an output feedback regulator with gravity compensation and desired force feedforward is proposed which only requires measurements of force and position. Semiglobal stability of the closed-loop system around the equilibrium is shown via a Lyapunov argument.     

Voltage-based adaptive impedance force control for a lower-limb rehabilitation robot

This paper presents a novel voltage-based adaptive impedance force control for a lower limb rehabilitation robot. The impedance parameters are adaptively regulated by a gradient descent algorithm for adjusting the human force in performing therapeutic exercises. Although the proposed control is based on voltage control strategy, it differs from the common torque control strategy. One of the advantages is that it is free from the dynamical models of the robot and patient. Compared with a torque control scheme, it is simpler, less computational, and more efficient while it considers the actuators. The control approach is verified by stability analysis. Simulation results show the efficiency of the control approach applied on a lower limb rehabilitation robot driven by an electric motor. A comparison on performing isometric exercise shows that the voltage-based adaptive impedance force control is superior to both voltage-based impedance control and torque-based impedance control.     

Hybrid force and motion control of flexible joint parallel manipulators using inverse dynamics approach

An inverse dynamics control algorithm is developed for hybrid motion and contact force trajectory tracking control of flexible joint parallel manipulators. First, an open-tree structure is considered by the disconnection of adequate number of unactuated joints. The loop closure constraint equations are then included. Elimination of the joint reaction forces and the other intermediate variables yield a fourth-order relation between the actuator torques and the end-effector position and contact force variables, showing that the control torques do not have an instantaneous effect on the end-effector contact forces and accelerations because of the flexibility. The proposed control law provides simultaneous and asymptotically stable control of the end-effector contact forces and the motion along the constraint surfaces by utilizing the feedback of positions and velocities of the actuated joints and rotors. A two degree of freedom planar parallel manipulator is considered as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the method.     

Stabilization of collective motion on a sphere

We provide a Lyapunov-based design of decentralized control laws that stabilize relative equilibria in a model of self-propelled particles that travel on the surface of a sphere. Such control laws have applications in planetary-scale mobile sensing networks in air, sea, and space. Relative equilibria of the closed-loop model include formations in which all of the particles travel around a common circular trajectory. Particle interaction can be time-invariant or time-varying and directed or undirected. The algorithm for time-invariant and undirected particle interaction uses a gradient-like control induced from the associated Laplacian matrix. The algorithm for time-varying and directed interaction replaces average quantities in the control law with dynamic consensus variables. An augmented Laplacian algorithm is also proposed to stabilize symmetric circular formations.     

Viscoelastic model based force control for soft tissue interaction and its application in physiological motion compensation

Controlling the interaction between robots and living soft tissues has become an important issue as the number of robotic systems inside the operating room increases. Many researches have been done on force control to help surgeons during medical procedures, such as physiological motion compensation and tele-operation systems with haptic feedback. In order to increase the performance of such controllers, this work presents a novel force control scheme using Active Observer (AOB) based on a viscoelastic interaction model. The control scheme has shown to be stable through theoretical analysis and its performance was evaluated by in vitro experiments. In order to evaluate how the force control scheme behaves under the presence of physiological motion, experiments considering breathing and beating heart disturbances are presented. The proposed control scheme presented a stable behavior in both static and moving environment. The viscoelastic AOB presented a compensation ratio of 87% for the breathing motion and 79% for the beating heart motion.     

Design and experimental validation of a second-order sliding-mode motion controller for robot manipulators

This article presents an original motion control strategy for robot manipulators based on the coupling of the inverse dynamics method with the so-called second-order sliding mode control approach. Using this method, in principle, all the coupling non-linearities in the dynamical model of the manipulator are compensated, transforming the multi-input non-linear system into a linear and decoupled one. Actually, since the inverse dynamics relies on an identified model, some residual uncertain terms remain and perturb the linear and decoupled system. This motivates the use of a robust control design approach to complete the control scheme. In this article the sliding mode control methodology is adopted. Sliding mode control has many appreciable features, such as design simplicity and robustness versus a wide class of uncertainties and disturbances. Yet conventional sliding mode control seems inappropriate to be applied in robotics since it can generate the so-called chattering effect, which can be destructive for the controlled robot. In this article, this problem is suitably circumvented by designing a second-order sliding mode controller capable of generating a continuous control law making the proposed sliding mode controller actually applicable to industrial robots. To build the inverse dynamics part of the proposed controller, a suitable dynamical model of the system has been formulated, and its parameters have been accurately identified relying on a practical MIMO identification procedure recently devised. The proposed inverse dynamics-based second-order sliding mode controller has been experimentally tested on a COMAU SMART3-S2 industrial manipulator, demonstrating the tracking properties and the good performances of the controlled system.     

Precise and smooth contact force control for a hybrid mobile robot used in polishing

Contact force is dominant in robotic polishing since it directly determines the material removal. However, due to the position and stiffness disturbance of mobile robotic polishing and the nonlinear contact process between the robot and workpiece, how to realize precise and smooth contact force control of the hybrid mobile polishing robot remains challenging. To solve this problem, the force tracking error is investigated, which indicates that the force overshoot mainly comes from the input step signal and the environmental disturbance causes force tracking error in stable state. Accordingly, an integrated contact force control method is proposed, which combines feedforward of the desired force and adaptive variable impedance control. The nonlinear tracking differentiator is used to smooth the input step signal of the desired force for force overshoot reduction. Through modeling of the force tracking error, the adaptive law of the damping parameter is established to compensate disturbance. After theoretical analysis and simulation verification, the polishing experiment is carried out. The improvement in force control accuracy and roughness of the polished surface proves the effectiveness of the proposed method. Sequentially, the proposed method is employed in the polishing of a 76-meter wind turbine blade. The measurement result indicates that the surface roughness after mobile robotic polishing is better than Ra1.6. The study provides a feasible approach to improve the polishing performance of the hybrid mobile polishing robot.     

Implementation of robust impedance and force control

In this paper, we discuss the problem of implementing impedance control in the presence of model uncertainties and its application to robot force control. We first propose a sliding mode-based impedance controller. The implementation of the targeted impedance, and the preservation of stability in the presence of model uncertainties, are the key issues in the proposed approach. Using sliding mode control, a simple and robust algorithm is obtained so that the targeted impedance can be accurately implemented without the exact model of the robot. The controller is designed in terms of the task space coordinates. The chattering in the sliding mode control is eliminated by using a continuous function. The problem of force control is also addressed for the impedance controlled robot. An off-line estimation method of the environment model is suggested and used in the force control scheme. The proposed impedance and force control schemes have been experimentally verified on a two degree-of-freedom direct-drive robot arm. The experimental results are presented in this paper.     

Human-machine interaction force control: using a model-referenced adaptive impedance device to control an index finger exoskeleton

Exoskeleton robots and their control methods have been extensively developed to aid post-stroke rehabilitation. Most of the existing methods using linear controllers are designed for position control and are not suitable for human-machine interaction （HMI） force control, as the interaction system between the human body and exoskeleton is uncertain and nonlinear. We present an approach for HMI force control via model reference adaptive impedance control （MRAIC） to solve this problem in case of index finger exoskeleton control. First, a dynamic HMI model, which is based on a position control inner loop, is for- mulated. Second, the theoretical MRAC framework is implemented in the control system. Then, the adaptive controllers are designed according to the Lyapunov stability theory. To verify the performance of the proposed method, we compare it with a proportional-integral-derivative （PID） method in the time domain with real experiments and in the frequency domain with simu- lations. The results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method in solving the nonlinear HMI force control problem in hand exoskeleton.     

Decoupling force and motion control in industrial robots

A theoretical approach to force control design for industrial robots involved in surface-following tasks is described in this paper, assuming an infinitely stiff environment. Independent Joint Control techniques, based on standard (PID) algorithms, are adopted for position control. Force control acts as an outer loop, by adding a bias to the position set points in the joint space. A simple model and compensation of the joint flexibility effects, that play an important role in determining the dynamic behavior of the system, are also presented, leading to a force control decoupled from motion control. Some experimental results are discussed, with reference to the industrial robot SMART.     

双闭环策略下非完整轮式机器人鲁棒自适应运动/力协调控制

非完整轮式移动机器人的路径跟踪,需要在保证机器人姿态跟踪精度的同时,增强其地面适应性能.为实现这种运动/力的协调控制目标,本文提出双闭环的控制系统结构:外环能够增加运动精度,内环则可以增强机器人对地面动态摩阻的适应性.同时,考虑到地面摩阻的慢时变性,本文通过构造观测器对其进行估计.在具体算法实现方面,采用反步法在外环构建运动控制器:而在内环,则是应用积分型的滑模技术设计力控制器与观测器.最后,对控制系统进行仿真,仿真结果证明所提出控制方法的有效性.     

Hybrid predictive control of a coaxial aerial robot for physical interaction through contact

This paper deals with the control of an unmanned coaxial helicopter designed towards active physical interaction with its environment. The system design is tailored to robust interaction through contact (e.g. docking and sliding on walls). Due to the rapid change of the dynamics from free-flight to the helicopter subject to the contact forces, a hybrid model is developed. This model captures all modes of the vehicle dynamics and is the basis for the design of a hybrid model predictive control strategy that ensures the stability of the hybrid dynamics and provides optimal maneuvering, docking on walls as well as sliding on them. The proposed control law is evaluated through experimental studies.     

PID landing orbit motion controller for an indoor blimp robot

Blimp robots are attractive as indoor flying robots because they can float in the air, land safely with low energy, and stay in motion for a long time compared with other flying robots. However, controlling blimp robots is difficult because they have nonlinear characteristics, are influenced by air streams, and can easily be influenced by inertia. Therefore, a robust and adaptive control system is needed for blimp robots. The applied research that has studied the features of indoor flying robots in recent years has prospered. Operating an indoor blimp robot for a long time is difficult because the payload is small, multiple batteries cannot be stacked, and the design of a thruster that gives freedom to the entire blimp robot is difficult. Therefore, an autonomous charge that allows operation for a long time is needed. We have developed a method of landing with orbital control of the charge point that gives autonomy to a blimp robot. The possibility of landing with orbital control is shown. This work was presented in part at the 10th International Symposium on Artificial Life and Robotics, Oita, Japan, February 4–6, 2005 An erratum to this article is available at .