An adaptive compliant control for robot manipulators is presented in t
his paper. The control law is designed in the task space and contains
a nonlinear model-based term and a linear compensator action. This is
obtained as a combination of the position error, the velocity error an
d the integral of the force error. The scheme is made adaptive with re
spect to the dynamic parameters of the model of the robot manipulator.
By using the classical Lyapunov method, it is demonstrated that the p
roposed control law ensures tracking of the unconstrained components o
f the desired end-effector trajectory, with regulation of the desired
contact force along the constrained direction. Experiments are develop
ed for an industrial robot manipulator in contact with an elastic surf
ace.