Assist Control Method Based on Operating Property for Task from Automated Transfer to Manual Positioning of Flexible Parts

Abstract

Industrial production lines combine both autonomous machinery such as industrial robots and operator-machine cooperative power-assist systems. There are a lot of flexible and large parts among assembly parts, because of the weight saving. In efficient switching among machine- and operator-oriented operation, vibration suppression is an important issue. This paper presents operator-based assist control for task from automated transfer to manual positioning of flexible parts. This involves a mode-switching compensator whose control input is continuous and an input-shaping compensator that suppresses flexible-parts vibration. The input-shaping compensator using a notch filter eliminates the vibration frequency component from the operating force signal. Filter gain is adjusted online based on operating properties. The effectiveness of our proposal is verified from (i) maneuverability based on time-response evaluation and task-achievement time, and (ii) operational feel subjectively evaluated based on questionnaires.