A Suitable Hierarchical Framework with Arbitrary Task Dimensions under Unilateral Constraints for physical Human Robot Interaction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hierarchical framework for redundant robots that manages multiple arbitrary tasks while respecting unilateral constraints and reacting intuitively to external forces, demonstrated through simulation and real robot experiments.

Contribution

The proposed framework uniquely handles multiple task dimensions with unilateral constraints and reactive behavior, advancing beyond existing hierarchical approaches.

Findings

Framework effectively manages multiple task dimensions.

Reacts intuitively to external forces.

Demonstrated success on KUKA LBR iiwa robot.

Abstract

In the last years, several hierarchical frameworks have been proposed to deal with highly-redundant robotic systems. Some of that systems are expected to perform multiple tasks and physically to interact with the environment. However, none of the proposed frameworks is able to manage multiple tasks with arbitrary task dimensions, while respecting unilateral constraints at position, velocity, acceleration and force level, and at the same time, to react intuitively to external forces. This work proposes a framework that addresses this problem. The framework is tested in simulation and on a real robot. The experiments on the redundant collaborative industrial robot (KUKA LBR iiwa) demonstrate the advantage of the framework compared to state-of-the-art approaches. The framework reacts intuitively to external forces and is able to limit joint positions, velocities, accelerations and forces.