Identification of Contact Position and Force Estimation on Manipulator Using Force Sensor Implemented on Base Frame

Sensing is essential in human cooperative robots to realize safe and powerful operations against contact with the surrounding environment. Contact sensing has been studied for manipulators to avoid accidents caused by collisions between humans and robots. Conventional research has demonstrated that contact sensing requires many sensors or has a limited measurable range. In the conventional research without sensors, modeling systems, such as frictional force and plant parameters, have been used to estimate the contact force. However, a high reduction ratio mechanism for achieving powerful operations hinders accurate force estimation. This study proposes a method to estimate the contact force and contact position on a manipulator with a high reduction ratio mechanism by installing only one force/torque sensor on the base frame of the manipulator. By using the proposed method, the contact force and contact position can be detected regardless of the location where the contact force is applied. Furthermore, when the contact force is applied in a location where the contact position cannot be accurately estimated, an estimated disturbance or a link motion is used to determine the contact position. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through experiments.