H. Wapenhans

Papers

Total Citations

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About

H. Wapenhans has made foundational contributions to the field of robotic manipulation, focusing on the intersection of trajectory planning, force control, and assembly automation. His work addresses a critical challenge in industrial robotics: enabling robots to perform precise, flexible assembly tasks while maintaining stability and safety. Wapenhans’s most influential paper, “Elastic Robot Trajectory Planning with Force Control” (1990, 14 citations), pioneered methods for integrating joint elasticity into motion planning—a key step toward realistic, compliant robot behavior. He further advanced this line of research in “Optimal trajectory planning with application to industrial robots” (1994, 10 citations), providing a systematic framework for generating efficient, collision-free paths. His 2002 paper on “Robotic force control for flexible assembly” (8 citations) stands out for presenting a complete design procedure that models constrained motion, including joint and sensor elasticity, to derive custom force control schemes for specific assembly tasks. This work directly addresses the stability and precision required for high-mix, low-volume manufacturing. Though his citation counts are modest, Wapenhans’s research is notable for its practical, design-oriented approach, offering engineers a clear methodology for implementing robust force control in real-world robotic systems.