A Generalized Theory of Load Distribution in Redundantly-actuated Robotic Systems
This addresses force-control challenges in multifingered grippers, legged robots, and cooperating robots, offering computational improvements over existing methods.
The paper tackles the problem of load distribution in redundantly-actuated robotic systems by presenting a generalized theory that characterizes feasible wrench distributions for rigid bodies, with explicit solutions for wrench synthesis and analysis that scale linearly and avoid numerical methods or large matrix inversions.
This paper presents a generalized theory which describes how applied loads are distributed within rigid bodies handled by redundantly-actuated robotic systems composed of multiple independent closed-loop kinematic chains. The theory fully characterizes the feasible set of manipulating wrench distributions for a given resultant wrench applied to the rigid body and has important implications for the force-control of multifingered grippers, legged robots, cooperating robots, and other overconstrained mechanisms. We also derive explicit solutions to the wrench synthesis and wrench analysis problems. These solutions are computationally efficient and scale linearly with the number of applied wrenches, requiring neither numerical methods nor the inversion of large matrices. Finally, we identify significant shortcomings in current state-of-the-art approaches and propose corrections. These are supported by illustrative examples that demonstrate the advantages of the improved methods.