13,907 research outputs found
Cooperative impedance control with time-varying stiffness
The focus of much automation research has been to design controllers and robots that safely interact with the environment. One approach is to use impedance control to specify a relationship between a robot\u27s motion and force and control a grasped object\u27s apparent stiffness, damping, and inertia. Conventional impedance control practices have focused on position-based manipulators - which are inherently non-compliant - using constant, task-dependent impedances. In the event of large trajectory tracking errors, this implementation method generates large interaction forces that can damage the workcell. Additionally, these position-based devices require dedicated force/torque sensors to measure and apply forces. In this paper, we present an alternative impedance controller implemented on cooperating torque-based manipulators. Through the use of time-varying impedance parameters, this controller limits the interaction forces to ensure harmless manipulation. Successful completion of transport and insertion tasks demonstrated the effectiveness of the controller
Cooperative Object Manipulation with Force Tracking on the da Vinci Research Kit
The da Vinci Surgical System is one of the most established robot-assisted surgery device commended for its dexterity and ergonomics in minimally invasive surgery. Conversely, it inherits disadvantages which are lack of autonomy and haptic feedback. In order to address these issues, this work proposes an industry-inspired solution to the field of force control in medical robotics. This approach contributes to shared autonomy by developing a controller for cooperative object manipulation with force tracking utilizing available manipulators and force feedback. To achieve simultaneous position and force tracking of the object, master and slave manipulators were assigned then controlled with Cartesian position control and impedance control respectively. Because impedance control requires a model-based feedforward compensation, we identified the lumped base parameters of mass, inertias, and frictions of a three degree-of-freedom double four-bar linkage mechanism with least squares and weighted least squares regression methods. Additionally, semidefinite programming was used to constrain the parameters to a feasible physical solution in standard parameter space. Robust stick-slip static friction compensation was applied where linear Viscous and Coulomb friction was inadequate in modeling the prismatic third joint. The Robot Operating System based controller was tested in RViz to check the cooperative kinematics of up to three manipulators. Additionally, simulation with the dynamic engine Gazebo verified the cooperative controller applying a constant tension force on a massless spring-damper virtual object. With adequate model feedback linearization, the cooperative impedance controller tested on the da Vinci Research Kit yielded stable tension force tracking while simultaneously moving in Cartesian space. The maximum force tracking error was +/- 0.5 N for both a compliant and stiff manipulated object
Control of an anthropomorphic manipulator involved in physical human-robot interaction
Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia MecânicaThe objective of the dissertation is to flexibly control the end effector velocity of a redundant
7-DOF manipulator by using a differential kinematics approach, while ensuring the
safety of the robotic arm from exceeding the physical limits of joints in terms of position,
velocity and acceleration. The thesis also contributes with a real-time obstacle avoidance
strategy for controlling anthropomorphic robotic arms in dynamic obstacle environments,
taking account of sudden appearances or disappearances of mobile obstacles. A method
for compensating force errors due to changes in the orientation of end effectors, independent
from structures of force sensors, is developed to achieve high accuracy in force
control applications. A novel method, the Virtual Elastic System, is proposed to control
mobile manipulators for physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) tasks in dynamic environments,
which enables the combination of an Inverse Differential Kinematics for redundant
robotic arms and a Dynamical Systems approach for nonholonomic mobile platforms.
Experiments with a 7-DOF robotic arm, side-mounted on a nonholonomic mobile
platform, are presented with the whole robot obstacle avoidance, proving the efficiency
of the developed method in pHRI scenarios, more specifically, cooperative human-robot
object transportation tasks in dynamic environments. Extensions of the method for other
mobile manipulators with holonomic mobile platforms or higher degrees of freedom manipulators
are also demonstrated through simulations
Accomplishing task-invariant assembly strategies by means of an inherently accommodating robot arm
Despite the fact that the main advantage of robot manipulators was always meant to
be their flexibility, they have not been applied widely to the assembly of industrial
components in situations other than those where hard automation might be used. We
identify the two main reasons for this as the 'fragility' of robot operation during tasks
that involve contact, and the lack of an appropriate user interface. This thesis describes
an attempt to address these problems.We survey the techniques that have been proposed to bring the performance of cur¬
rent industrial robot manipulators in line with expectations, and conclude that the
main obstacle in realising a flexible assembly robot that exhibits robust and reliable
behaviour is the problem of spatial uncertainty.Based on observations of the performance of position-controlled robot manipulators and
what is involved during rigid-body part mating, we propose a model of assembly tasks
that exploits the shape invariance of the part geometry across instances of a task. This
allows us to escape from the problem of spatial uncertainty because we are 110 longer
working in spatial terms. In addition, because the descriptions of assembly tasks that
we derive are task-invariant, i.e. they are not dependent on part size or location, they
lend themselves naturally to a task-level programming interface, thereby simplifying
the process of programming an assembly robot.the process of programming an assembly robot.
However, to test this approach empirically requires a manipulator that is able to control
the force that it applies, as well as being sensitive to environmental constraints. The
inertial properties of standard industrial manipulators preclude them from exhibiting
this kind of behaviour. In order to solve this problem we designed and constructed a
three degree of freedom, planar, direct-drive arm that is open-loop force-controllable
(with respect to its end-point), and inherently accommodating during contact.In order to demonstrate the forgiving nature of operation of our robot arm we imple¬
mented a generic crank turning program that is independent of the geometry of the
crank involved, i.e. no knowledge is required of the location or length of the crank.
I11 order to demonstrate the viability of our proposed approach to assembly we pro¬
grammed our robot system to perform some representative tasks; the insertion of a peg
into a hole, and the rotation of a block into a corner. These programs were tested on
parts of various size and material, and in various locations in order to illustrate their
invariant nature.We conclude that the problem of spatial uncertainty is in fact an artefact of the fact
that current industrial manipulators are designed to be position controlled. The work
described in this thesis shows that assembly robots, when appropriately designed,
controlled and programmed, can be the reliable and flexible devices they were always
meant to be
Method and apparatus for configuration control of redundant robots
A method and apparatus to control a robot or manipulator configuration over the entire motion based on augmentation of the manipulator forward kinematics is disclosed. A set of kinematic functions is defined in Cartesian or joint space to reflect the desirable configuration that will be achieved in addition to the specified end-effector motion. The user-defined kinematic functions and the end-effector Cartesian coordinates are combined to form a set of task-related configuration variables as generalized coordinates for the manipulator. A task-based adaptive scheme is then utilized to directly control the configuration variables so as to achieve tracking of some desired reference trajectories throughout the robot motion. This accomplishes the basic task of desired end-effector motion, while utilizing the redundancy to achieve any additional task through the desired time variation of the kinematic functions. The present invention can also be used for optimization of any kinematic objective function, or for satisfaction of a set of kinematic inequality constraints, as in an obstacle avoidance problem. In contrast to pseudoinverse-based methods, the configuration control scheme ensures cyclic motion of the manipulator, which is an essential requirement for repetitive operations. The control law is simple and computationally very fast, and does not require either the complex manipulator dynamic model or the complicated inverse kinematic transformation. The configuration control scheme can alternatively be implemented in joint space
On-line Joint Limit Avoidance for Torque Controlled Robots by Joint Space Parametrization
This paper proposes control laws ensuring the stabilization of a time-varying
desired joint trajectory, as well as joint limit avoidance, in the case of
fully-actuated manipulators. The key idea is to perform a parametrization of
the feasible joint space in terms of exogenous states. It follows that the
control of these states allows for joint limit avoidance. One of the main
outcomes of this paper is that position terms in control laws are replaced by
parametrized terms, where joint limits must be avoided. Stability and
convergence of time-varying reference trajectories obtained with the proposed
method are demonstrated to be in the sense of Lyapunov. The introduced control
laws are verified by carrying out experiments on two degrees-of-freedom of the
humanoid robot iCub.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the 2016 IEEE-RAS International
Conference on Humanoid Robot
Design and Control of an In-Parallel Pneumatically-Actuated Manipulator
The design and control of an in-parallel, pneumatically actuated manipulator is presented. In-parallel manipulators offer superior dynamic characteristics because of their high stiffness, low inertia, and potential for direct drive actuation. In this thesis, the three degree of freedom tripod manipulator is studied. The three degrees of freedom of the manipulator are exactly those that are required for force control perpendicular to a surface. These degrees of freedom are translations along the approach direction and rotations about the axes perpendicular to the approach direction. This body of research can be grouped into three parts. First the area of force control is examined with two purposes in mind, improving pneumatic force control, and understanding how force control has been traditionally implemented and the reasons for its limitations. Next, the improvement of the response of the mechanism and the implementation of different force control schemes are investigated. To improve the response of the system, shorter transmission lengths and an inner pressure feedback loop are added. Position control, force control, stiffness/compliance control, and impedance control, are all investigated, Lastly, a discussion of the advantages and possible uses of this mechanism is presented. The advantage of the parallel mechanism is the ability to regulate the force perpendicular to the surface. Thus, the mechanism can control the force perpendicular to the surface, while an arm attached to the mechanism can control the position of the end effector. This mechanism thus allows the hybrid position and force control problem to be decoupled. Obvious uses for applying a force perpendicular to a surface are tasks such as deburring or polishing. Another possible use could be peg insertion; a new design for peg insertion will be discussed. Lastly, this mechanism could be used as an ankle for a walking machine or a writ for a serial robot. The mechanism can adjust for unforeseen impacts and allow the system to be used in an unstructured environment
Folding Assembly by Means of Dual-Arm Robotic Manipulation
In this paper, we consider folding assembly as an assembly primitive suitable
for dual-arm robotic assembly, that can be integrated in a higher level
assembly strategy. The system composed by two pieces in contact is modelled as
an articulated object, connected by a prismatic-revolute joint. Different
grasping scenarios were considered in order to model the system, and a simple
controller based on feedback linearisation is proposed, using force torque
measurements to compute the contact point kinematics. The folding assembly
controller has been experimentally tested with two sample parts, in order to
showcase folding assembly as a viable assembly primitive.Comment: 7 pages, accepted for ICRA 201
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