Design and Control of a Compliant Parallel Manipulator

Thomas G. Sugar, Arizona State University
R. Vijay Kumar, University of Pennsylvania

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Postprint version. Published in Journal of Mechanical Design, Volume 124, Issue 4, December 2002, pages 676-683.

Abstract

We describe a novel design for a compliant arm that can be mounted on a mobile robot. Because the arm is compliant, a mobile robot can manipulate or interact with objects that are not precisely positioned in the environment. The main features of the arm are the in-parallel architecture and a novel control scheme that allows us to easily control the Cartesian stiffness or impedance in the plane. Springs are added in series to the limbs of the parallel manipulator. We analyze one limb and the manipulator to determine its performance when either controlling the force applied to an object or controlling its stiffness. Further, we present experimental results that show the performance of the compliant arm.