Human-Robot Cooperation for Surface Repair Combining Automatic and Manual Modes

Abstract

This article develops a human-robot cooperation to carry out treatments such as sanding, polishing, etc. on the surface of a known rigid object. For this purpose, a vision system is considered to get the object location to ensure not only the perpendicularity of the robot tool to the object surface but also a smooth approach of the tool to the surface. In order to add flexibility, the proposal includes the simultaneous combination of automatic and manual modes of operation. Thus, the human user can guide the robot tool to treat arbitrary areas (manual mode) and, when the operator releases the tool, the robot goes into the automatic mode to treat prior established areas. The method uses a task prioritization framework and three types of controllers: an admittance controller for the tool guidance; a hybrid controller to modify the tool orientation and, in the automatic mode, the tool position; and a sliding mode controller to limit the velocity at which the tool approaches the object surface. The applicability and efficacy of the proposed method is demonstrated experimentally using a conventional 6R robot arm. INDEX TERMS Cooperative sanding, robot cooperation, vision system I. INTRODUCTION A. MOTIVATION

Combining haptics and inertial motion capture to enhance remote control of a dual-arm robot

“…In this new human in-theloop architecture, the whiteboard and eraser will be moved around freely, until the tool makes contact with some object. Then, a low-level controller enters the loop to regulate the force applied by the manipulator, as was done in [67]. This guarantees that certain constraints are not violated, such as upper/lower bounds of the applied force or the alignment between both surfaces in contact.…”

Human-Robot Collaboration for Unknown Flexible Surface Exploration and Treatment Based on Mesh Iterative Learning Control

“…In recent years, HRC has gained much research interest for enabling robots to perform complex operations by learning human skills [4], which has a wide range of applications such as surgeries [5], [6], assembly [7], and surface repair [8], [9]. Many automotive companies including Audi, Skoda, and Nissan have been using HRC methods via deployed cobots due to their affordability, built-in safety, and intuitive user interfaces (UIs) [2].…”

Robust human-robot collaboration for polishing tasks in the automotive industry

“…It must be noted that this chapter corresponds to two published contributions: (García et al, 2020) and (García et al, 2021). Where (García et al, 2021) contributes with a expansion of (García et al, 2020)] with the addition of a boundary constraint to the control scheme.…”

“…It must be noted that this chapter corresponds to two published contributions: (García et al, 2020) and (García et al, 2021). Where (García et al, 2021) contributes with a expansion of (García et al, 2020)] with the addition of a boundary constraint to the control scheme. This being the case, this chapter is mostly based on (García et al, 2021), although the results from both applications are shown in the corresponding section.…”

“…However, note that the value of d c does not need to be computed nor estimated since the proposed SMC-based controller, which is detailed below, is inherently robust against this error. Keep in mind that in the contribution (García et al, 2020) the boundary constraint is not present, the first level is in charge of the control of the tool orientation, and the smooth approach is ensured by the second level of control.…”