Lecture 9 - Impedance Control with Dynamical Systems

Abstract

In this lecture, we show how DSs can be combined with impedance control, an approach traditionally used to perform robust torque control, to perform torque control. Impedance control can be shaped in such a way as to enable robots to absorb interaction forces and dissipate energy at contact. This is particularly useful when contacts may be undesired as the result of unexpected disturbances, such as bumping into an object inadvetently, and to make robots safer in the presence of humans. It is, however, often difficult to determine beforehand what the right impedance would be for a given task. For this reason, many methods have been offered to learn what is the right impedance to apply, when, and where. This chapter reviews some of these and shows how learning of variable impedance can be done in conjunction with learning a DS based control law.

Lecture Video

Slides

Click here to download a pdf version of the ppt presentation.

Exercises Instructions

Click here to download a pdf of the instructions for the exercises.

Code for MATLAB Exercises

The recommended way to do the MATLAB exercises is to download the entire repository once, then go to each lecture's folder. Detailled instructions for installation can be found on the Software page.

Click here to download the corresponding exercise for this lecture as a zip file.
Note you will also need this libraries folder placed with the correct directory structure.

First Theoretical Exercise Solution

Click here to download a pdf of the solution of the first handwritten exercise.

Robotic Implementation