Addressing catastrophic forgetting in payload parameter identification using incremental ensemble learning

Collaborative robots (cobots) are increasingly integrated into Industry 4.0 dynamic manufacturing environments that require frequent system reconfiguration due to changes in cobot paths and payloads. This necessitates fast methods for identifying payload inertial parameters to compensate the cobot controller and ensure precise and safe operation. Our prior work used Incremental Ensemble Model (IEM) to identify payload parameters, eliminating the need for an excitation path and thus removing the separate identification step. However, this approach suffers from catastrophic forgetting. This paper introduces a novel incremental ensemble learning method that addresses the problem of catastrophic forgetting by adding a new weak learner to the ensemble model for each new training bag. Moreover, it proposes a new classification model that assists the ensemble model in identifying which weak learner provides the most accurate estimation for new input data. The proposed method incrementally updates the identification model while the cobot navigates any task path, maintaining accuracy on old weak learner even after updating with new data. Validation performed on the Franka Emika cobot showcases the model's superior accuracy and adaptability, effectively eliminating the problem of catastrophic forgetting.