Cooperation between a 4 DOF robotic hand and a human for carrying an object together

Abstract

This paper focuses on the cooperation between a 4 DOF robotic hand and a human. A multilayer PVDF based shear force sensor has been developed for robotic fingertips that can measure the force applied by the human on the object during cooperation. It is shown that the various stages of initial contact with the object, cooperative motion and slip can be successfully detected. Based on the sensor output the robot fingers are controlled using variable impedance control. Experimental results prove that it is possible to detect the humans applied force and control the 4 DOF robotic gripper during cooperation.