Controlling Robot Gripper Force By Transferring Human Forearm Stiffness Using Force Myography

Abstract

This paper presents an approach for human-robot cooperation by transferring human forearm stiffness to the robot. The essential element of the proposed approach is Force Myography (FMG) of the forearm muscles that provides the robot with the human arm stiffness while picking up a part. Through this framework, the robot controller can adapt its gripper force to imitate human behavior facing different parts in weights and sizes during the cooperation. The proposed method is evaluated experimentally in picking-up and moving the pieces tasks that are common activities in industries. The results demonstrate that the robot can control its arm gripper force facing different parts with the error less than 2%, that depicts the effectiveness of the proposed method.