Hybrid Adaptive Vision - Force Control for Robot Manipulators Interacting with Unknown Surfaces

A hybrid control scheme based on adaptive visual servoing and direct force control is proposed for robot manipulators to perform interaction tasks on smooth surfaces. The camera parameters, as well as the constraint surface, are considered to be uncertain. A fixed camera with optical axis non-perpendicular to the robot workspace is used for position control, while a force sensor mounted on the robot wrist is used for force regulation. In order to solve the interaction problem on unknown surfaces, a method is developed to estimate the constraint geometry and keep the end-effector orthogonal to the surface at the contact point, during the task execution. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance and feasibility of the proposed scheme. KEY WORDS—adaptive control, force control, robot vision, robotic manipulators.