Novel Hybrid Adaptive Controller for Manipulation in Complex Perturbation Environments

In this paper we present a hybrid control scheme, combining the advantages of task-space and joint-space control. The controller is based on a human-like adaptive design, which minimises both control effort and tracking error. Our novel hybrid adaptive controller has been tested in extensive simulat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Smith, Alex M. C., Yang, Chenguang, Ma, Hongbin, Culverhouse, Phil, Cangelosi, Angelo, Burdet, Etienne
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2015
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4452518/
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Summary:In this paper we present a hybrid control scheme, combining the advantages of task-space and joint-space control. The controller is based on a human-like adaptive design, which minimises both control effort and tracking error. Our novel hybrid adaptive controller has been tested in extensive simulations, in a scenario where a Baxter robot manipulator is affected by external disturbances in the form of interaction with the environment and tool-like end-effector perturbations. The results demonstrated improved performance in the hybrid controller over both of its component parts. In addition, we introduce a novel method for online adaptation of learning parameters, using the fuzzy control formalism to utilise expert knowledge from the experimenter. This mechanism of meta-learning induces further improvement in performance and avoids the need for tuning through trial testing.