Joint space compliance control for a hydraulic quadruped robot based on force feedback

In the realm of quadruped robot locomotion,compliance control is imperative to handle impacts when negotiating unstructured terrains.At the same time,kinematic tracking accuracy should be guaranteed during locomotion.To meet both demands,ajoint space compliance controller is designed,so that compliance can be achieved in stance phase while position tracking performance can be guaranteed in swing phase.Unlike operational space compliance control,the joint space compliance control method is easy to implement and does not depend on robot dynamics.As for each joint actuator,high performance force control is of great importance for compliance design.Therefore,a nonlinear PI controller based on feedback linearization is proposed for the hydraulic actuator force control.Besides,an outer position loop（compliance loop）is closed for each joint.Experiments are carried out to verify the force controller and compliance of the hydraulic actuator.The robot leg compliance is assessed by a virtual prototyping simulation.

Mechanical Design and Dynamic Compliance Control of Lightweight Manipulator

In the existing modular joint design and control methods of collaborative robots, the inertia of the manipulator link is large,the dynamic trajectory planning ability is weak, the collision stop safety strategy is dependent, and the adaptability and safety to the changing environment are limited. This paper develops a six-degree-of-freedom lightweight collaborative manipulator with real-time dynamic trajectory planning and active compliance control. Firstly, a novel motor installation, joint transmission, and link design method is put forward to reduce the inertia of the links and improve intrinsic safety. At the same time, to enhance the dynamic operation capability and quick response of the manipulator, a smooth planning of position and orientation under initial/end pose and velocity constraints is proposed. The adaptability to the environment is improved by the active compliance control. Finally, experiments are carried out to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design, planning, and control methods.

Real-time Compliance Control of an Assistive Joint Using QNX Operating System

An assistive robot is a novel service robot, playing an important role in the society. For instance, it can amplify human power not only for the elderly and disabled to recover/rehabilitate their lost/impaired musculoskeletal functions but also for healthy people to perform tasks requiring large forces. Consequently, it is required to consider both accurate position control and human safety, which is the compliance. This paper deals with the robot control compliance problem based on the QNX real-time operating system. Firstly, the mechanical structure of a compliant joint on the assistive robot is designed using Solidworks. Then the parameters of the assistive robot system are identified. The software of robot control includes data acquisition and processing, and control to meet the compliance requirement of the joint control. Finally, a Hogan impedance control experiment is carried out. The experimental results prove the effectiveness of the method proposed.

Compliance motion control of the hydraulic dual-arm manipulator with adaptive mass estimation of unknown object

Given the limited operating ability of a single robotic arm,dual-arm collaborative operations have become increasingly prominent.Compared with the electrically driven dual-arm manipulator,due to the unknown heavy load,difficulty in measuring contact forces,and control complexity during the closed-chain object transportation task,the hydraulic dual-arm manipulator(HDM)faces more difficulty in accurately tracking the desired motion trajectory,which may cause object deformation or even breakage.To overcome this problem,a compliance motion control method is proposed in this paper for the HDM.The mass parameter of the unknown object is obtained by using an adaptive method based on velocity error.Due to the difficulty in obtaining the actual internal force of the object,the pressure signal from the pressure sensor of the hydraulic system is used to estimate the contact force at the end-effector(EE)of two hydraulic manipulators(HMs).Further,the estimated contact force is used to calculate the actual internal force on the object.Then,a compliance motion controller is designed for HDM closed-chain collaboration.The position and internal force errors of the object are reduced by the feedback of the position,velocity,and internal force errors of the object to achieve the effect of the compliance motion of the HDM,i.e.,to reduce the motion error and internal force of the object.The required velocity and force at the EE of the two HMs,including the position and internal force errors of the object,are inputted into separate position controllers.In addition,the position controllers of the two individual HMs are designed to enable precise motion control by using the virtual decomposition control method.Finally,comparative experiments are carried out on a hydraulic dual-arm test bench.The proposed method is validated by the experimental results,which demonstrate improved object position accuracy and reduced internal force.

Gait simulation of new robot for human walking on sand

In order to simulate the gait of human walking on different terrains a new robot with six degrees of freedom was proposed. Based on sand bearing characteristic compliance control was introduced to control system in horizontal and vertical movement directions at the end of the robot,and position control in attitude. With Matlab/Simulink toolbox,the system control models were established,and the bearing characteristics of rigid ground,hard sand,soft sand and softer sand were simulated. The results show that 0,0.62,0.89 and 1.12 mm are the maximal subsidences of the four kinds of ground along the positive direction of x-axis,respectively,and 0,-0.96,-1.99 and -3.00 mm are the maximal subsidences along the negative direction of x-axis,respectively. Every subsidence along y-axis is negative,and 0,-4.12,-8.23 and -12.01 mm are the maximal subsidences of the four kinds of ground,respectively. Simulation results show that the subsidence of footboard points to inferior anterior in early stage of stand phase,while points to posterior aspect in late stage. The subsidence tends to point to posterior aspect in the whole. These results are basically consistent with the gait characteristics of human walking on sand. Gait simulation of the robot for human walking on sand is achieved.

Optimal Energy Efficiency Based High-speed Flying Control Method for Hydraulic Quadruped Robot

Herein,a control method based on the optimal energy efficiency of a hydraulic quadruped robot was proposed,which not only realizes the optimal energy efficiency of flying trot gait but also ensures the stability of high-speed movement.Concretely,the energy consumption per unit distance was adopted as the energy efficiency evaluation index based on the constant pressure oil supply characteristics of the hydraulic system,and the global optimization algorithm was adopted to solve the optimal parameters.Afterward,the gait parameters that affect the energy efficiency of quadruped were analyzed and the mapping relationship between each parameter and energy efficiency was captured,so as to select the optimum combination of energy efficiency parameters,which is significant to improve endurance capability.Furthermore,to ensure the stability of the high-speed flying trot gait motion of the hydraulic quadruped robot,the active compliance control strategy was employed.Lastly,the proposed method was successfully verified by simulations and experiments.The experimental results reveal that the flying trot gait of the hydraulic quadruped robot can be stably controlled at a speed of 2.2 m/s.

Soft-landing control for a six-legged mobile repetitive lander

The primary mode of extraterrestrial exploration is a robotic system comprising a lander and a rover.However,the lander is immovable,and the rover has a restrictive detection area because of the difficulties of reaching complex terrains,such as those with deep craters.In this study,a six-legged mobile repetitive lander with landing and walking functions is designed to solve these problems.First,a six-legged mobile repetitive lander and its structure are introduced.Then,a soft-landing method based on compliance control and optimal force control is addressed to control the landing process.Finally,the experiments are conducted to validate the soft-landing method and its performances.Results show that the soft-landing method for the six-legged mobile repetitive lander can successfully control the joint torques and solve the soft-landing problem on complex terrains,such as those with steps and slopes.

Landing control method of a lightweight four-legged landing and walking robot

The prober with an immovable lander and a movable rover is commonly used to explore the Moon’s surface.The rover can complete the detection on relatively flat terrain of the lunar surface well,but its detection efficiency on deep craters and mountains is relatively low due to the difficulties of reaching such places.A lightweight four-legged landing and walking robot called“FLLWR”is designed in this study.It can take off and land repeatedly between any two sites wherever on deep craters,mountains or other challenging landforms that are difficult to reach by direct ground movement.The robot integrates the functions of a lander and a rover,including folding,deploying,repetitive landing,and walking.A landing control method via compliance control is proposed to solve the critical problem of impact energy dissipation to realize buffer landing.Repetitive landing experiments on a five-degree-of-freedom lunar gravity testing platform are performed.Under the landing conditions with a vertical velocity of 2.1 m/s and a loading weight of 140 kg,the torque safety margin is 10.3%and 16.7%,and the height safety margin is 36.4%and 50.1%for the cases with or without an additional horizontal disturbance velocity of 0.4 m/s,respectively.The study provides a novel insight into the next-generation lunar exploration equipment.

Bionic Muscle Control with Adaptive Stiffness for Bionic Parallel Mechanism

As the torso is critical to the coordinated movement and flexibility of vertebrates,a 6-(Degree of Freedom)DOF bionic parallel torso with noteworthy motion space was designed in our previous work.To improve the compliance of the parallel mechanism,a pair of virtual muscle models is constructed on both sides of the rotating joints of each link of the mechanism,and a bionic muscle control algorithm is introduced.By analyzing the control parameters of the muscle model,dynamic characteristics similar to those of biological muscle are obtained.An adaptive stiffness control is proposed to adaptively adjust the stiffness coefficient with the change in the external load of the parallel mechanism.The attitude closed-loop control can effectively keep the attitude angle unchanged when the position of the moving platform changes.The simulations and experiments are undertaken to validate compliant movements and the flexibility and adaptability of the parallel mechanism.

Virtual Reality-based Teleoperation with Robustness Against Modeling Errors

This article investigates virtual reality (VR)-based teleoperation with robustness against modeling errors. VR technology is an effective way to overcome the large time delay during space robot teleoperation. However, it depends highly on the accuracy of model. Model errors between the virtual and real environment exist inevitably. The existing way to deal with the problem is by means of either model matching or robot compliance control. As distinct from the existing methods, this article tries to combine m...