$H_\infty$ control of contact position and force of a manipulator

An application of H$_{\infty}$ synthesis to contact control of a manipulator is suggested. Based on computed torque linearization of a manipulator, a target dynamics for contact motion control is defined and used as a reference model. The target dynamics relates position and force errors through free motion impedance and force error compensators. The H$_{\infty}$ control synthesis is adopted to find an optimum the compensator for position tied force control in various directions of the end-effector. The optimization is performed on the augmented criteria, which trades off the sensitivity function of the errors and the input load at the joints. A design example of the compensator is provided that meets the design specifications.s.