Safe Human Robot-Interaction using Switched Model Reference Admittance Control

Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) task involves tight coupling between safety constraints and compliance with human intentions. In this paper, a novel switched model reference admittance controller is developed to maintain compliance with the external force while upholding safety constraints in the workspace for an n-link manipulator involved in pHRI. A switched reference model is designed for the admittance controller to generate the reference trajectory within the safe workspace. The stability analysis of the switched reference model is carried out by an appropriate selection of the Common Quadratic Lyapunov Function (CQLF) so that asymptotic convergence of the trajectory tracking error is ensured. The efficacy of the proposed controller is validated in simulation on a two-link robot manipulator.

Robust Artificial Delay based Impedance Control of Robotic Manipulators with Uncertain Dynamics

In this paper an artificial delay based impedance controller is proposed for robotic manipulators with uncertainty in dynamics. The control law unites the time delayed estimation (TDE) framework with a second order switching controller of super twisting algorithm (STA) type via a novel generalized filtered tracking error (GFTE). While time delayed estimation framework eliminates the need for accurate modelling of robot dynamics by estimating the uncertain robot dynamics and interaction forces from immediate past data of state and control effort, the second order switching control law in the outer loop provides robustness against the time delayed estimation (TDE) error that arises due to approximation of the manipulator dynamics. Thus, the proposed control law tries to establish a desired impedance model between the robot end effector variables i.e. force and motion in presence of uncertainties, both when it is encountering smooth contact forces and during free motion. Simulation results for a two link manipulator using the proposed controller along with convergence analysis are shown to validate the proposition.