Impedance control for a pneumatic robot-based around pole-placement, joint space controllers

Increasingly robots are required to interact directly with humans requiring control of not only the robot position but also taking into account the applied forces. Robotic physiotherapy is one such application. This paper describes the implementation of a force and position control strategy, termed impedance control, on a pneumatic robot designed to implement robotic physiotherapy. The controller is shown to work appropriately over a range of conditions. The performance achieved is limited by the quality of force measurement in multiple axes.