Orthogonalization principle for hybrid control of robot arms under geometric constraint

A principle of "orthogonalization" is proposed as an extended notion of hybrid (force and position) control for robot manipulators under geometric endpoint constraints. The principle realizes the hybrid control in a strict sense by letting position and velocity feedback signals be orthogonal in joint space to the contact force vector whose components are exerted at corresponding joints. This orthogonalization is executed via a projection matrix computed in real-time from a gradient of the equation of the surface in joint coordinates and hence both projected position and velocity feedback signals become perpendicular to the force vector that is normal to the surface at the contact point in joint space. To show the important role of the principle in control of robot manipulators, three basic problems are analyzed, the first is a hybrid trajectory tracking problem by means of a "modified hybrid computed torque method", the second is a model-based adaptive control problem for robot manipulators under geometric endpoint constraints, and the third is an iterative learning control problem. It is shown that the passivity of residual error dynamics of robots follows from the orthogonalization principle and it plays a crucial role in convergence properties of both positional and force error signals.force error signals.