Force Control and Assembly

This chapter explains the force control strategy used for the parallel active and passive force control of an industrial manipulator. The approach presented is a generic way that makes it possible to do assembly task in a safe manner. This also makes the robot compliant in the presence of an obstruction which applies a reaction force greater than what is expected based on the already identified dynamic model as detailed in previous chapter. A simplified approach is proposed to estimate the dynamic parameters which are useful for the task of peg-in-tube wherein constraints in motion are present. Force control becomes a prerequisite when it comes to performing any contact-based task using a robot so that the inaccuracy in the robot’s end-effector position or any uncertain changes in its environment could be dealt with ease. The detailed approach for the assembly task, namely, peg-in-tube is discussed.