Educational Force Control Using a Modular 2-DOF Serial Robot Manipulator and Low-Cost 2-DOF Force Sensor

Abstract

This paper describes a modular 2-DOF serial robotic system and accompanying experiments that have been developed to instruct robotics students in the fundamentals of dynamic force control. In prior work, we used this same robot to showcase and compare the performance of a variety of textbook techniques for dynamic motion control (i.e. fast/accurate trajectory tracking using dynamic model-based and robust control techniques). In this paper we now add a low-cost 3D-printed 2-DOF force sensor to this modular robot and demonstrate a variety of force control techniques for use when the robot is in physical contact with the environment. These include stiffness control, impedance control, admittance control, and hybrid position/force control. Each of these various force control schemes can be first simulated and then experimentally implemented using a MATLAB/Simulink real-time interface. The two-degrees of freedom are just enough to demonstrate how the manipulator Jacobian can be used to implement directional impedances in operational space, and to demonstrate how hybrid control can implement position and force control in different axes. This paper will describe the 2-DOF robot system including the custom force sensor, illustrate the various force control methods that can be implemented, and demonstrate sample results from these experiments.