Force-Motion Control For A Six Degree-Of-Freedom Robotic Manipulator

-- This paper presents a unified algorithm for motion and force control for a six degree-of-freedom spatial manipulator . The motion-force contoller performs trajectory tracking, maneuvering the manipulator's end-effector through desired positions, orientations and rates. When contacting an obstacle or target object, the force module of the controller restricts the manipulator movements with a novel force exertion method, which prevents damage to the manipulator, end-effectors and objects during the contact or collision. The core strategy presented in this paper is to design the linear acceleration for the end-effector which ensures both trajectory tracking and restriction of any contact force at the end-effector . The design of the controller has been validated through numerical simulations and digital twin visualization. I. INTRODUCTION Robotic manipulators are used in various industries such as automotive and aerospace for a vast amount of applications. These common applications, such as material handling and assembly, require the end effector to follow the reference trajectories. In addition to trajectory tracking, a safe collaborative robot must control the force that the end-effector exerts upon contact with any obstacles during trajectory tracking. Specifically, the magnitude of the force that the robot exerts should be bounded by the maximum allowable force.