ROBUST ALGORITHM FOR ACQUIRING AND INTERPRETING CONTACT DATA VIA ACTIVE ROBOT EXPLORATION

A NEW GENERATION OF ROBOTS DRIVEN BY HIGH-BANDWIDTH, BACKDRIVABLE TRANSMISSIONS AND HIGH-PERFORMANCE BRUSHLESS DC MOTORS PRESENTS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPROVING THE FLOW OF FORCE DATA BACK TO THE CONTROLLER WITHOUT ADDITIONAL FORCE SENSORS. AN INNOVATIVE ALGORITHM FOR DETERMINING CONTACT GEOMETRY BASED ON MOTOR TORQUES PROVIDES FEEDBACK TO THE ELECTRONIC CONTROLLER OR HUMAN TELEOPERATOR. THE ALGORITHM COMPLEMENTS EXISTING FORCE-SENSOR AND TACTILE-SENSOR TECHNIQUES WHICH OFFER IMPROVED ACCURACY, BUT OTHERWISE LIMIT THE RESPONSIVENESS AND STABILITY OF THE SYSTEM. THE RESEARCH COMPILES A SET OF PROTOTYPE FORCE-CONTROL TASKS, DETERMINES THE SPECIAL KINEMATIC EQUATIONS NECESSARY TO CALCULATE CONTACT FORCE VECTORS, DEVELOPS A MATHEMATICAL AND GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE CONTACT GEOMETRIES, DETERMINES THE BEST IMPLEMENTATION ALGORITHM FOR THE REQUIRED SPEED, AND OUTLINES SPECIFICATIONS FOR EXPERIMENTAL DEVELOPMENT. THE RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH IS FASTER, MORE DEXTEROUS ROBOTS WHICH RELAY GREATER INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROCESS THAN EXISTING ROBOT SYSTEMS. U.S. COMPANIES HAVE HELPED LEAD THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY IN BACKDRIVABLE ROBOTIC-HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT. BY IMPROVING THE CONTROL ALGORITHMS TO CAPITALIZE ON THESE HARDWARE IMPROVEMENTS, THE UNITED STATES WILL RETAIN ITS COMPETITIVE LEAD IN THIS CRITICAL AREA OF ROBOTICS.