Manipulator control for physical astronaut-robot interaction

Abstract: The future of human-robot interaction applications is highly dependent
on the capability to perform safe and efficient physical interaction using
the robot's manipulators with a human. Even though the optimal use of human-
robot interaction is a challenging problem, it can improve the quality and
efficiency of the task execution since humans and robots are both able to
perform certain tasks in some situations better than the others.

WorkPartner, TKK's mobile service robot, has no support for manipulator
control system for the purpose of safe human-robot physical interaction
application. Additionally, the existing manipulator control system has no
position controller to be upgraded for human-robot physical interaction
applications. This thesis addresses those problems by developing the
compliance control capabilities of the WorkPartner manipulator. First, the
state-of-the-art of physical human robot interaction is presented focusing
on commonly used manipulator control algorithms, such as stiffness control
and impedance control as well as force/torque sensors, such as the six-axis
force/torque sensor and motor current sensor. Second, a manipulator control
algorithm is suggested based on admittance control. This algorithm is
implemented on the WorkPartner simulator and on the WorkPartner manipulator
to examine the four selected manipulator behavior modes which are follow
movement, holds position, adapt movement and push with force. The thesis
test results show that selected admittance based manipulator control
algorithm is capable to provide all the four examined manipulator behavior
modes.

The thesis is part of the SpacePartner project which is a co-sponsored
PhD project of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Helsinki University
of Technology (TKK).