Development of Impedance Control for Human/Robot Interactive Handling of Heavy Parts and Loads

Abstract

This paper introduces a control system for human/robot interactive handling of heavy parts and loads. The aim of the study was to demonstrate the feasibility of human/robot cooperative handling of heavy parts and loads with a robot as a load carrier and a human as a motion guide. The control system included a medium sized industrial robot and two 6-dof F/T sensors adjusting the robot motion via parallel impedance compensators. This paper shows the principles for designing stable impedance compensators for hard contact with the environment as well as for soft contact with the human operator. The impedance compensators were evaluated in MATLAB Simulink and the target impedance models were verified with the real robot system. The result was a pilot system for flexible handling of heavy and large-size parts which can substantially improve the production performance and ergonomic work conditions in mechanical and manufacturing shops.