Robotic Sanding of Wooden Bowls with Hybrid Force/Position Impedance Control

This paper addresses the question as to whether a serial robot could be used to sand a wooden bowl, in order to free a human operator from what is considered a hazardous task. The process of sanding wood is similar to the polishing of metal, There are robot-based commercial systems available for the polishing of metal. However, unlike aluminum, wood is a non-homogeneous material. In the case of wooden bowls, each has a unique geometry, and to a degree, unique material properties. A hybrid force/position impedance controller was implemented and four different force control configurations were tested. The best performance was obtained with a FO filter for force control and PD action for position control.