The Cobotic Hand Controller: Design, Control and Performance of a Novel Haptic Display

We examine the design, control and performance of the Cobotic Hand Controller, a novel, six-degree-of-freedom, admittance controlled haptic display. A highly geared admittance architecture is often used to render high impedances with reasonable sized actuators for a haptic display. The Cobotic Hand Controller is an extremely faithful realization of an admittance display, since it is capable of obtaining an infinite gear ratio and can render infinite impedances (up to its own structural stiffness). The incorporation of continuously variable transmissions utilizing hardened steel elements in dry-friction rolling contact provide the Cobotic Hand Controller with high bandwidth, low power requirements, and an extremely wide stable dynamic range. Here we describe an admittance based control algorithm for powered cobots, a novel solution to the actuation redundancy of this device, and a heuristic to avoid slip in the transmissions. We measure the performance of the Cobotic Hand Controller in ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2006
• Where: IJRR
• Authors: Eric L. Faulring, J. Edward Colgate, Michael A. Peshkin
• Keywords: Admittance, Cobotic Hand Controller, Haptic Display, IJRR 2006