Multi-Point Cartesian Compliance Control of Redundant Manipulators

A Cartesian compliance based control scheme is presented for the kinematically redundant serial manipulator. The controller can be decomposed into three parts. The first part imposes the desired cartesian compliance of the end effector. The second part attempts to shape the cartesian compliance parameters of the virtual points by the avaiable joint torque null space. Finally, the additional term is introduced to ensure the strict-output passivity and the asymptotic stability of the controlled system. As a result, the compliance characteristics of specified points along the manipulator's links can be addressed with the best effort of the control scheme in addition to the desired end effector compliance of the redundant manipulator.