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Engineering Challenges of Contact Robotics| old_uid | 5212 |
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| title | Engineering Challenges of Contact Robotics |
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| start_date | 2008/07/04 |
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| schedule | 10h30-13h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Robots are rapidly becoming commonplace domestic appliances but to realize their full potential requires the perfection of contact robotics, machines that physically cooperate with humans. Effective control of physical human-robot interaction presents unique challenges. Forceful human-machine interaction is surprisingly difficult. Even the deceptively simple act of pushing on a tool is statically de-stabilizing. Yet humans accomplish contact tasks with consummate ease, due, in part, to skillful control of mechanical impedance. In fact, I will present evidence that impedance rather than strength can determine the limits of human force production. Endowing machines with similar characteristics may enable robots to approach (or exceed) biological performance, but achieving low, controllable impedance remains a challenge, especially at forces comparable to human strength. Force feedback is appealing but robustly stable contact imposes severe limits. I will review recent progress using quantitative knowledge of human operator impedance to reduce force feedback conservatism. Feedback control may be augmented by engineering novel biomimetic actuators. Electro-active polymers may ultimately achieve muscle-like function but their application requires control-relevant models-minimally complex yet reproducing essential behavior. I will show how an energy-based network approach yields real-time computable models that accurately reproduce observed behavior over the full range of excitation and-more important-provide new insight. |
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| responsibles | Clady |
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