Adaptive position/force control of robot manipulators without velocity measurements: theory and experimentation

In this paper, we design an adaptive position/force controller for robot manipulators during constrained motion. The proposed controller can compensate for parametric uncertainty while only requiring measurements of link position and end-effector force. A filtering technique is utilized to produce a pseudo-velocity error signal and thus, eliminate the need for link velocity measurements. The control strategy provides semiglobal asymptotic tracking performance for the end-effector position and the interaction force between the constraint and the end-effector. An experimental implementation of the proposed controller on a two-link planar robot is also presented.