ADAPTIVE MODEL-BASED HYBRID CONTROL OF GEOMETRICALLY CONSTRAINED ROBOT ARMS

This paper reports comparative experiments with a new model-based adap tive force control algorithm for robot arms. This controller provides simultaneous position and force trajectory tracking of a robot arm who se tool tip is in point contact with a smooth rigid surface, The algor ithm is provably stable with respect to the commonly accepted rigid-bo dy nonlinear dynamical model for robot arms. Comparative experiments s how the new adaptive model-based controller to provide performance sup erior to that of both nonmodel-based controllers and nonadaptive contr ollers over a wide range of operating conditions.