Teaching and Control of Robot Contour-Tracking Using Contact Point Detection

Abstract

New methods for teaching and controlling contour-tracking tasks based on contact sensing are developed to improve robotic machining. Accurate contact point detection is introduced to estimating a work contour path with high reliability. The framework is described that control references for a robotic manipulator are calculated from the estimated work contour path and task specifications. Then, teaching methods are developed assuming that the contact sensing method is applied to obtain the work contour path in teaching process and to obtain the path during task execution. These teaching methods reduce the effort for task teaching and improve adaptability to handle changes in task specifications without re-teaching. Real-time contour tracking control using this contact sensing to suppress work uncertainties in process is presented. Experimental results for practical grinding tasks using a 6 DOF manipulator validate our methods.