A general framework for cobot control

A general framework is presented for the design and analysis of cobot contr ollers. Cobots are inherently passive robots intended for direct collaborat ive work with a human operator. While a human applies forces and moments, t he controller guides motion by tuning the cobot's set of continuously varia ble transmissions. In this paper, a path-following controller is developed that steers the cobot so as to asymptotically approach and follow a preplan ned path. The controller is based on feedback linearization. Generality acr oss cobot architectures is assured by designing the controller in task spac e and developing transformations between each of four spaces: task space, j oint space, a set of coupling spaces, and steering space.