Design of force/position control laws for constrained robots, including effects of joint flexibility and actuator dynamics

Abstract

In this paper, a mathematical representation of constrained robot systems in the form of a differential-algebraic equation model is first considered. This model in modified further to include the joint flexibility between the linkages of the robot, and the actuator dynamics. The objective is to design a feedback control law for the system so that the position output variables (typically the end-effector position) and the force output variables (typically the contact force between the robot's end-effector and the contact surface) of the robot follows the desired position and the desired force trajectories, respectively, despite the presence of joint flexibility and actuator dynamics. A systematic procedure is developed for designing a feedback control law which ensures that the position variables track the desired position trajectories exponentially, and the force variables track the desired force trajectories exponentially. Since the development of the control law is based on the model of a constrained robot system which includes the effects of actuator dynamics and joint flexibility, it is possible to achieve better tracking performance using the force/position control law developed in this paper in cases where such effects are significant.