TY - CHAP T1 - Optimal Mechanical/Control Design for Safe and Fast Robotics T2 - Experimental Robotics IX: The 9th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics Y1 - 2006 A1 - G. Tonietti A1 - R. Schiavi A1 - A. Bicchi ED - Marcelo H. Ang, Oussama Khatib KW - Physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) KW - Robotics AB -

The problem to ensure safety of performant robot arms during task execution was previously investigated by authors. The problem can be approached by studying an optimal control policy, the "Safe Brachistocrone", whose solutions are joint impedance trajectories coordinated with desired joint velocities. Transmission stiffness is chosen so as to achieve minimum-time task execution for the robot, while guaranteeing an intrinsic safety level in case of an unexpected collision between a link of the arm and a human operator. In this paper we extend this approach to more general classes of robot actuation systems, whereby other impedance parameters beside stiffness (such as e.g. joint damping and/or plasticity) can vary. We report on a rather extensive experimental campaign validating the proposed approach.

JF - Experimental Robotics IX: The 9th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics T3 - Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics PB - Springer Berlin / Heidelberg VL - 21 ER -