Construction of an Impedance Control Test Bench

Controlling the physical interaction with the environment or objects, as humans do, is a shared requirement across different types of robots. To effectively control this interaction, it is necessary to control the power delivered to the load, that is, the interaction force and the interaction velocity. However, it is not possible to control these two quantities independently at the same time. An alternative is to control the relation between them, with Impedance and Admittance control, for example. The Impedance Control 2 Dimensions (IC2D) bench is a test bench designed to allow the performance analysis of different actuators and controllers at the joint level. Therefore, it was designed to be as versatile as possible, to allow the combination of linear and/or rotational motions, to use electric and/or hydraulic actuators, with loads known and defined by the user. The bench adheres to a set of requirements defined by the demands of the research group, to be a reliable, backlash-free mechatronic system to validate system dynamics models and controller designs, as well as a valuable experimental setup for benchmarking electric and hydraulic actuators. This article presents the mechanical, electrical, and hydraulic configurations used to ensure the robustness and reliability of the test bench. Benches similar to this one are commonly found in robotics laboratories around the world. However, the IC2D stands out for its versatility and reliability, as well as for supporting hydraulic and electric actuators.