Paper:
Hybrid-Type Position and Force Control of Robot Manipulator Using Artificial Rubber Muscle
Toshiro Noritsugu*, Fuminori Ando**, Shujiro Dohta***
and Takashi Yamanaka****
*Faculty of Engineering, Okayama University, 3-1-1, Tsushimanaka, Okayama, 700 Japan
**Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., 3-1-l, Higashikawasaki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 650-91 Japan
***Faculty of Engineering, Okayama University of Science, 1-1, Ridai-cho, Okayama, 700 Japan
****Bridgestone Corporation, 3-1-1, Ogawahigashi-cho, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187 Japan
An artificial rubber muscle has attracted much attention because of its light weight and mechanical flexibility. Thus, it is anticipated that it may be applied to a robot which can operate gently against or with humans. However, there are only few reports on multi-d.o.f. manipulators using this actuator. In this study, a hybrid-type position and force control is carried out by using a 2 d.o.f. manipulator comprising this manipulator, and its fundamental control performance is investigated. This actuator has a nonlinear characteristic in terms of structure and air compressibility, which makes accurate position control difficult. To cope with such a problem, a position controller using a two d.o.f. PID controller is realized by adding a feedforward compensator. As a result, a satisfactory position-tracking control performance can be obtained. Also, hybrid-type control of force control and tracking speed can be accomplished with sufficient accuracy.
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