The application of intelligent active force control of a robot manipulator in surface finishing processes

Abstract

In manufacturing, and industrial robot is often used to manipulate objects (work pieces) either in free or constrained environments. The latter is more critical since it involves significant interaction of forces between the robot's end-effector, object and its surrounding which can directly affect the performance (accuracy) ofthe robot. Typical robotic tasks include de-burring, machining, contour/profile tracking, welding assembly, polishing and pick-and-transfer operations. Thus, the study of robot force control is a potential area ofresearch to address the problems as it seeks ways to counteract them effectively and robustly. The proposed research is aimed at investigating and analyzing the effects of changing various parameters including the different loading and operating conditions in a robotic control system. A rigorous simulation study was conducted particularly on the trajectory tracking performance of a two-link planar robot that is assumed to execute grinding and deburring processes. Active force control with intelligent elements was used in the study. The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme was verified and also compared with the conventional proportional-plus- derivative (PD) counterpart.