Identification of Compliant Contact Parameters and Admittance Force Modulation on a Non-stationary Compliant Surface
This addresses safety and performance issues in applications like surgical manipulation of moving tissues, but it is incremental as it builds on existing force control methods.
The paper tackles the problem of controlling interaction forces for robotic manipulators in compliant, non-stationary environments by developing a mechanical probing strategy to estimate environmental impedance parameters and using them in an adaptive force controller. Results demonstrate fast parameter estimation and successful force modulation that compensates for motion.
Although autonomous control of robotic manipulators has been studied for several decades, they are not commonly used in safety-critical applications due to lack of safety and performance guarantees - many of them concerning the modulation of interaction forces. This paper presents a mechanical probing strategy for estimating the environmental impedance parameters of compliant environments, independent a manipulator's controller design, and configuration. The parameter estimates are used in a position-based adaptive force controller to enable control of interaction forces in compliant, stationary, and non-stationary environments. This approach is targeted for applications where the workspace is constrained and non-stationary, and where force control is critical to task success. These applications include surgical tasks involving manipulation of compliant, delicate, moving tissues. Results show fast parameter estimation and successful force modulation that compensates for motion.