G1500-1-2 受動要素を用いた肘のパワーアシストシステムの設計手法(ロボティクス・メカトロニクス部門一般講演(1):操作支援,社会変革を技術で廻す機械工学)

This paper proposes an intelligent massage control system by using multi-fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance and force control, which is able to create the movement and force of robot to behave as similar as the human’s massage. Therefore, the various massage points, such as the changing of hardness and softness of human skin muscle condition, can be appropriately controlled by using hybrid impedance and force control method. The impedance control is used to control the lateral position of massage on the human skin muscle. The perpendicular direction one, while force control is carried out for the vertical direction on human skin muscle. This paper also gives a modeling of human skin muscle through robot perception of impedance to decide the parameter of impedance controller. The control strategy using a hybrid impedance and force control to implement an adaptive control system is presented, when human condition is changed with soft and hard skin muscle. For the robot fingertip force, PI servo compensation is used together with impedance control. Based on using both impedance and PI servo compensation, the effectiveness of the massage position and force control is shown through actual massage motion experiments.

Human assist devices are expected to be developed in the field of welfare, home, factory and so on. The devices are required to not only to assist the human but also to be strictly stable. Impedance control based on position control is often used for the human assist devices because the control system is simpler than that of the devices based on force control. But if the impedance parameters are made to be smaller in order to get good maneuverability, the system becomes unstable because of the delay of the position control system especially when the assisted tools touch high stiffness environment such as a wall. In this paper, we propose an impedance control method based on position control by employing passive elements such as a mass, a spring and a damper. Then we show in a simulation that the system controlled by the proposed method with very low impedance parameters is stable even if the system touches a high stiffness environment.

The best exoskeleton control strategy depends on the task, motivating the development and analysis of an exoskeleton capable of position, force, and impedance control. In this paper, we implement and compare the three controller types via sliding mode control on a custom-built pneumatic cylinder ankle exoskeleton. To evaluate each controller's performance, the exoskeleton was tested on the benchtop and with human subject experiments. With the position controller, the exoskeleton achieved an root-mean-square error (RMSE) of under 5 deg for both the benchtop and human tests. It had a bandwidth of approximately 12 rad/s. The force controller tracked sinusoidal trajectories acceptably well at low frequencies (15% of force range at 6 rad/s), with a bandwidth of approximately 24 rad/s. The error was significantly higher (RMSE of 24% of force range) for the more biologically relevant trajectory. The impedance controller demonstrated the desired spring-like behavior, with position RMSE generally under 5 deg compared to expected position. All three controllers worked equally well for benchtop and human tests. Thus, a pneumatically powered ankle exoskeleton with sliding mode control is capable of accurate position and impedance control and is capable of marginally acceptable force control.

On-line learning of robot arm impedance using neural networks

Physiotherapy is the treatment to recover a patient’s mobility and limb function after an injury, illness, or disability. Rehabilitation robots can be used to replace human physiotherapists. To ensure safety during robot physical therapy, the patient’s limb needs to be controlled to track a desired joint trajectory, and the torque due to interaction force/torque needs to be measured and regulated. Therefore, hybrid impedance and admittance with position control (HIPC) is required to track the trajectory and simultaneously regulate the contact torque. The literature describes two structures of HIPC: (1) a switched framework between admittance and impedance control operating in parallel (HIPCSW); and (2) a series connection between admittance and impedance control without switching. In this study, a hybrid adaptive impedance and position-based admittance control (HAIPC) in series is developed, which consists of a proportional derivative-based admittance position controller with gravitational torque compensation and an adaptive impedance controller. An extended state observer is used to estimate the interaction joint torque due to human stiff contact with the exoskeleton without the use of force/torque sensor, which is then used in the adaptive algorithm to update the stiffness and damping gains of the adaptive impedance controller. Simulation results obtained using MATLAB show that the proposed HAIPC significantly reduces the mean absolute values of the actuation torques (control inputs) required for the shoulder and elbow joints in comparison with HIPC and HIPCSW.

This paper proposes an intelligent massage control system by using multi-fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance control, which is able to create the movement and the force of robot such as the human's massage. Therefore, the various massage points, such as the change of the stiffness of human skin muscle, can be controlled by using impedance control method. The hybrid impedance control is comprised of the two methods of the position-based and the force-based impedance control were applied. The position-based impedance control is used to control the lateral position of massage on the human skin muscle. On the other hand, the force-based impedance control is used to control the force of the vertical direction on human skin muscle. This paper also gives the identification of human skin muscle through robot perception of impedance to decide the parameter of impedance controller. The control strategy using impedance control to implement an adaptive control system is presented, when human condition is changed with soft and hard skin muscle. Effectiveness of massage control system by using multi- fingered robot hand with hybrid impedance control is demonstrator through actual massage experiments of pushing and rubbing motion.

In this paper, a novel impedance control method is designed for the hydraulic drive unit (HDU) equipped on the hydraulic driven legged robot. First, the position control mathematical model of HDU is built. Next, the HDU performance test platform is introduced and the performance requirements are given. Second, the system load pressure observer is designed and an accurate stiffness control method is proposed by combining the external load force feed forward control with the load force feedback control. Third, the damping control method based on the velocity feedback is designed. Finally, a novel impedance control method is proposed through combining the stiffness control and the damping control. The effects of all techniques listed above have been verified experimentally. Especially, the impedance control effects are verified by comparing the impedance characteristics with the natural characteristics of the second-order mass-spring-damper system. This research indicates that the system characteristics of HDU with the novel impedance control method is well equivalent to that of the second-order mass-spring-damper system, which can solve the stall problem of the robot joint movement process caused by the load force vanish instantaneously and the switch between position control and force control. The above research can provide references for the active compliance control of bionic legged robots.

Time delay in bilateral control system seriously deteriorates stability. Conventional acceleration based bilateral control method has stabilized position control. But, force control is not stabilized. This paper proposed a stability improved structure for bilateral control system. Position control and force control of proposed bilateral control system are stabilized. The validity of the proposed method is shown by numerical and experimental results.

일반 산업용 로봇의 위치정밀도는 100㎛ 정도임에 반해, 정밀부품의 조립공차는 수십 ㎛ 이내이다. 또한, 조립공차가 작을 경우 미소한 위치/각도 오차에 의해 재밍 또는 웨징이 쉽게 발생하며, 위치제어 기반의 로봇인 경우 부품 조립 시 접촉력을 적절히 조절하지 못하여 조립물이 파손될 가능성이 크다. 이와 같은 문제를 해결하기 위하여 접촉력에 능동적으로 반응할 수 있는 힘제어 기반의 로봇조립에 대한 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 기존의 산업용 로봇에 적용하기 용이하도록 위치제어 기반의 머니퓰레이터에 힘제어를 적용할 수 있는 시스템을 구현하였다. 머니퓰레이터에 어드미턴스 필터를 이용한 임피던스 제어를 적용하여 안정적인 접촉운동을 구현하였다. 또한, 임피던스 제어와 blind 검색을 적용하여 정밀부품을 조립할 수 있음을 검증하였다.

The digital control system of modular multilevel converters (MMCs) normally synchronizes with the switching actions. The switching frequency of an MMC is generally selected as low as possible from an efficiency point of view, which leads to an unavoidable and relatively long time delay in the control system. Such a time delay might deteriorate the MMC performance and even reduce the stability margin by introducing infinite uncertain eigenvalues into the system state functions. Without a proper time-delay model and quantitative system stability analyses, MMCs might suffer from uncertainties and unstable risks during their operations, especially when the switching frequency is low. This paper derives an MMC model considering the time delay in the digital control system. A Pade-based stability analysis method is then proposed, which consists of three steps: information integration and critical eigenvalue extraction, and trajectory visualization and critical angle (CA) calculation, and quantitative assessment and extreme value determination. By the proposed model and method, the critical eigenvalue can be effectively extracted. With the Hopf bifurcation, the time delay in the digital control system induces a pair critical conjugate eigenvalues into MMC systems, which is detected as an instability cause. The CA and the critical impact are defined to quantitatively assess the stability, while selecting the controller parameters and minimum switching frequency. The proposed method for the MMC stability assessment is experimentally verified.

Robotic force control is a core research direction in robotics technology. For tasks such as polishing and assembly, it requires not only precise motion control but also compliant force control by adjusting output force and torque. Traditional impedance control can ensure accuracy in a single environment, but it is limited by the difficulty in accurately acquiring parameters in complex environments; although variable impedance control can adapt to the environment, it faces challenges in control law design. This paper integrates the extended Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (ex-TD3) algorithm with impedance control, proposing an ex-TD3-based intelligent impedance control optimization algorithm. A Python-MATLAB/SimMechanics co-simulation platform is established to verify its effectiveness. The experiment adopts a scenario where the robot moves linearly along the z-axis, with fixed environmental stiffness and the desired tracking force changing in stages over time. The model training is iterated for 300 episodes, after which the reward tends to stabilize and the control strategy converges. Experimental results show that, compared with the traditional adaptive impedance control algorithm, the proposed algorithm in this paper exhibits faster force response, smaller force fluctuations during force step changes, smoother force output throughout the process: the maximum overshoot of force control decreases from 6.21N to 1.33N (a reduction rate of 77.63%), and the maximum position tracking error is reduced by 69.5%. With the above optimized design, this study significantly improves the energy efficiency and long-term operational sustainability of mechatronic systems; its precise control of force overshoot and position tracking error effectively reduces mechanical losses and unnecessary energy consumption during the system’s dynamic interaction with the environment.

In this paper, model-based precision force and position control of an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) is presented. A 23.8 mm × 3.4 mm × 0.16 mm IPMC strip was used as an actuator in a cantilever configuration. Open-loop force and position responses of an IPMC are not repeatable, and hence closed-loop precision control is of critical importance to ensure proper functioning, repeat-ability and reliability. After feedback controllers were designed and implemented with empirically obtained fourth-order plant transfer functions, the overshoot decreased from 460 to 2.8 per cent and the settling time was reduced from 37.5 to 3.22 s in force control. In position control the overshoot decreased from 333 to 20.3 per cent and the settling time was reduced from 21.5 to 2.56 s. Microscale precision force and position control capabilities of the IPMC actuator were also demonstrated experimentally. An 8 μN force resolution was achieved with a force noise of 0.5μN r.m.s., and the position resolution was 6 μm with a position noise of 2.5 μm r.m.s. The maximum force and tip displacement achieved with the IPMC actuator under closed-loop control were 2 mN and 5 mm respectively. The IPMC actuator could follow various commanded force and position trajectories such as sinusoidal and trapezoidal position profiles, and a velocity profile with a 3 mm/s maximum velocity. A novel hybrid force and position control strategy demonstrated its utility in practical micromanipulalion applications where the actuator force must be limited to prevent damaging micro-objects. High-precision control of the IPMC at low force level proved its potential for micromanufacturing and micromanipulation applications such as robotic and biomedical microgrippers.

The paper set up a system structure of the coordination of the human motor control system in layered modularization. A module of object hybrid impedance controller (HIC) was designed for it to compensate the whole dynamics. The inner force controller and movement controller were designed by adopting the method of nonlinear dynamic decoupling and impedance controlling. Integrated controller of two-robot can be realized by combining those two controllers. It was shown in the experiment result that the two-robot coordination control system was control effect is satisfactory and met the design requirement.

To address the demands for precision and load-bearing capacity in the installation of building panels, a hybrid force-position driven robot with redundant actuation has been developed. The mechanical performance of this robot is primarily governed by its central parallel mechanism, which is equipped with redundant actuators matching the degrees of freedom. Non-redundant and redundant actuators are respectively responsible for position and force control. The inclusion of redundant force-driven joints has increased the internal coupling within the mechanism. To enhance the coordination between position and force control, a hybrid synchronized control method based on cross-coupling has been proposed. Initially, kinematic and dynamic models of the parallel structure were established. Under predefined trajectories, the theoretical inputs for each actuator were calculated using inverse kinematics and dynamics. Subsequently, employing the principle of cross-coupling, the torque output from the position actuators was used as feedback. This feedback was processed by a synchronized coordination controller to adjust the output force of the redundant force-driven joints. By adjusting the output force of the redundant actuators, the torque burden on the position actuators was effectively reduced, thereby enhancing the precision of position control. Additionally, under the same load conditions, smaller power actuators could be utilized for position control, reducing the overall weight of the robot and improving its load-to-weight ratio. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, a robotic simulation environment was established. The simulation results demonstrated significant reductions in the average torque required by the position actuators across three different trajectories, with reductions of 91.43%, 54.56%, and 80.6% respectively. Finally, the load-bearing capacity and the load-to-weight ratio of the prototype were assessed. Experimental results confirmed that the prototype achieved a load-to-weight ratio of 15.83%, validating the effectiveness of the hybrid synchronized control method based on cross-coupling.

A preliminary study of a semi-active control system with pneumatic devices, aimed to improve the response of multi-degree of freedom structures to earthquakes, is presented. The devices are attached at various levels of a structural frame. The aim of the design is to find a combination of forces that are produced by the devices, in order to obtain optimal structural response. The mechanical response of the devices is regulated by air pressure, which is varied in each device at every time step in such a way that the forces in the devices will be close as possible to those, obtained by the optimization procedure. Linear auto-regressive model with exogenous input is used to predict the displacements and the velocities of the frame in order to overcome the time delay in the control system. The control forces are calculated at every time step, using the instantaneous optimal control algorithm, according to the values of the displacements and of the velocities that are predicted for the next time step, for each story of the structure. Numerical analysis of a seven story structure with pneumatic devices was carried out. It shows a significant improvement of the structural response when the proposed con- trol system is applied, compared to that of an uncontrolled structure and of a structure with semi-active controlled elec- trorheological dampers.