A Lyapunov-based design tool of impedance controllers for robot manipulators

summary:This paper presents a design tool of impedance controllers for robot manipulators, based on the formulation of Lyapunov functions. The proposed control approach addresses two challenges: the regulation of the interaction forces, ensured by the impedance error converging to zero, while preserving a suitable path tracking despite constraints imposed by the environment. The asymptotic stability of an equilibrium point of the system, composed by full nonlinear robot dynamics and the impedance control, is demonstrated according to Lyapunov's direct method. The system's performance was tested through the real-time experimental implementation of an interaction task involving a two degree-of-freedom, direct-drive robot