Robot Control for Task Performance and Enhanced Safety under Impact

A control law combining motion performance quality and low stiffness reaction to unintended contacts is proposed in this work. It achieves prescribed performance evolution of the position error under disturbances up to a level related to model uncertainties and responds compliantly and with low stiffness to significant disturbances arising from impact forces. The controller employs a velocity reference signal in a model-based control law utilizing a non-linear time-dependent term, which embeds prescribed performance specifications and vanishes in case of significant disturbances. Simulation results with a three degrees of freedom (DOF) robot illustrate the motion performance and selfregulation of the output stiffness achieved by this controller under an external force, and highlights its advantages with respect to constant and switched impedance schemes. Experiments with a KUKA LWR4+ demonstrate its performance under impact with a human while following a desired trajectory.