Abstract
An electro-hydraulic manipulator using hydraulic actuators has many nonlinear elements, and its parameter fluctuations are greater than those of an electrically driven manipulator. So it is relatively difficult to realize not only stable contact work but also accurate force control for the automatic assembly tasks using hydraulic manipulators. In this manuscript, we applied a compliance control, which is based on the position control by a disturbance observer for our manipulator system. A reference trajectory modification method is proposed in order to achieve accurate force control even though the stiffness and the position of the environment change. Experimental results show that highly robust force tracking by a 6-link electro-hydraulic manipulator could be achieved under various environment conditions. The proposed force control algorithm is applied to the approaching of bolt and the wrenching of nut tasks as one typical task in the maintenance work of live power electric line and is experimentally confirmed very effective for the task.
