Effects of Input Shaping on Impact Loads During Collisions Involving Flexible Robots

Abstract

Collaborative robots are designed to work autonomously with little to no guidance and interact with humans in a shared workspace. Such applications pose safety concerns for the human. In recent years, the design and control of soft robotics in shared environments has received increasing attention due to their inherent flexibility and improved safety characteristics. Because co-robots work among humans, they must produce low impact forces upon collision with the human body. To design effective compliant robots, impact forces must be understood. Cranes can be considered as simple flexible robot arms. The flexible arm consists of the vertical suspension cables and the attached payload. This pendulum can have significant swing. To simulate impact effects between this flexible robot arm and the human body, a complaint arm model was constructed. The effect of input shaping on impact loads was then evaluated.