An Interaction Controller Formulation to Systematically Avoid Force Overshoots through Impedance Shaping Method with Compliant Robot Base

Nowadays, light-weight manipulators are widely adopted in many applicationsrequiring manipulation/interaction with compliant/fragile objects. Reduced inertiaand controlled compliance, indeed, make such manipulators particularlyattractive when compliant mountings (or mobile platforms) are adopted andcontact force overshoot may compromise the application. The here presentedwork proposes the design of a force-tracking controller for interaction tasks allowingto systematically avoid any force overshoot for lightweight robots mountedon compliant bases. The developed algorithm allows to compensate for thecompliant robot base dynamics that aects the interaction. The control gainsare calculated to track a target force reference through the estimation of therobot base state and the interacting environment stiness. Closed-loop stabilityand control gains calculation are described. The control law has been validatedin a probing task involving a compliant robot base and a compliant environmentto show the obtained performance.