Hybrid force and vision-based contour following of planar robots

Manipulators interacted with uncalibrated environments have limited dexterity due to constraints imposed by unknown environments. However, to perform science or industrial operations, it is necessary to be able to position and orient these manipulators on targets in order to accomplish required control tasks. This article describes how one might enhance manipulator dexterity for planar contour following tasks using hybrid force and vision-based control. The proposed control approach can guarantee task precision employing only a single-axis force sensor and an imprecisely calibrated CCD camera whose optical axis is perpendicular to the planar workspace. The goal of the autonomous task is to drive an instrument mounted on the end-effector of a planar robotic manipulator to follow a visually determined planar contour and continue tracking the contour in desired pose, contact force, and speed, all demanding time-varying, with precision. The proposed control architecture is suitable for applications that require simultaneous force and pose control in unknown environments. Our approach is successfully validated in a real task environment by performing experiments with an industrial robotic manipulator.