When a human controls a robot directly or via teleoperation, incomplete information and unpredictable environmental conditions can lead to conflicts between their plans. Differential game theory (GT) offers a framework for optimal robotic assistance, but existing methods for identifying the human model require a shared plan. This article introduces an approach to deal with a diverging human plan by leveraging a neuromechanical model of their viscoelasticity to directly estimate their motion intent during movement. The viscoelastic gains can then be integrated into a GT framework to compute optimal contribution of the robot to the common motor task. We evaluated the proposed method in experiments, comparing it with fixed impedance control and nonoptimal variable impedance control. Results demonstrate stable interactions even in the presence of conflicting motion plans, and superior performance relative to these two alternative methods.

Contour accuracy is crucial for machining precision in five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machining. This paper addresses the challenge of improving contour accuracy by proposing a novel contour error estimation and compensation method based on dynamic time warping (DTW). By incorporating time information and geometric characteristics of the machining path, the proposed method introduces a multiple-information fusion algorithm to define distance characteristics between the planned and actual trajectory sequences. This allows the calculation of a distortion path and the establishment of a mapping model between the two sequences. To mitigate the effect of DTW singularity on contour error estimation, a mapping model is established between line segments to determine reference points. The position contour error and the direction contour error of the five-axis tool are accurately estimated using segmented Hermite interpolation, and a spatial iterative learning framework is employed to compensate for them. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in dealing with estimation errors in complex trajectories and its good performance in improving contour accuracy.Note to Practitioners—This paper proposes an effective strategy for the estimation of contour errors in five-axis machining. Currently, most methods for contour error estimation in five-axis machining are based on the nearest point principle. However, this approach fails to accurately estimate contour errors for complex trajectories with significant curvature variations, leading to ineffective contour error compensation in subsequent stages. Therefore, we introduce a contour error estimation algorithm based on DTW. This algorithm takes into account the time information and geometric features of the machining path. Experimental results validate the feasibility and advantages of this approach.

Torque ripples and disturbances pose significant obstacles to achieving superior speed regulation performance of the permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). This study proposes an enhanced sliding mode control (SMC) approach to further elevate the dynamic responsiveness and antidisturbance ability of the PMSM. First, an advanced fast reaching law (AFRL), which introduces system errors into the power and exponential terms, is proposed to simultaneously reduce the reaching time and sliding mode chattering. A modified sliding mode observer (MSMO) is then constructed to assess the variation of the load torques, and an iterative learning law is designed to learn the periodic disturbances. The integration of the MSMO and iterative learning law forms an iterative composite compensation strategy, which effectively elevates the observation accuracy of system disturbances and strengthen the system’s robustness. The enhanced sliding controller is consequently developed according to the AFRL and the iterative composite compensation. The stability of the AFRL and the closed-loop PMSM system, as well as the convergence of tracking errors, are rigorously substantiated using the Lyapunov theory. Experimental results reveal that the proposed controller exhibits smaller torque ripples, faster convergence speed, reduced chattering, and considerable antidisturbance capability.

In radial basis function neural network (RBFNN)-based real-time learning tasks, forgetting mechanisms are widely used such that the neural network can keep its sensitivity to new data. However, with forgetting mechanisms, some useful knowledge will get lost simply because they are learned a long time ago, which we refer to as the passive knowledge forgetting phenomenon. To address this problem, this article proposes a real-time training method named selective memory recursive least squares (SMRLS) in which the classical forgetting mechanisms are recast into a memory mechanism. Different from the forgetting mechanism, which mainly evaluates the importance of samples according to the time when samples are collected, the memory mechanism evaluates the importance of samples through both temporal and spatial distribution of samples. With SMRLS, the input space of the RBFNN is evenly divided into a finite number of partitions, and a synthesized objective function is developed using synthesized samples from each partition. In addition to the current approximation error, the neural network also updates its weights according to the recorded data from the partition being visited. Compared with classical training methods including the forgetting factor recursive least squares (FFRLS) and stochastic gradient descent (SGD) methods, SMRLS achieves improved learning speed and generalization capability, which are demonstrated by corresponding simulation results.

Memory, as the basis of learning, determines the storage, update, and forgetting of knowledge and further determines the efficiency of learning. Featured with the mechanism of memory, a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN)-based learning control scheme named real-time progressive learning (RTPL) is proposed to learn the unknown dynamics of the system with guaranteed stability and closed-loop performance. Instead of the Lyapunov-based weight update law of conventional neural network learning control (NNLC), which mainly concentrates on stability and control performance, RTPL uses the selective memory recursive least squares (SMRLS) algorithm to update the weights of the neural network and achieves the following merits: 1) improved learning speed without filtering; 2) robustness to hyperparameter setting of neural networks; 3) good generalization ability, i.e., reuse of learned knowledge in different tasks; and 4) guaranteed learning performance under parameter perturbation. Moreover, RTPL realizes continuous accumulation of knowledge as a result of its reasonably allocated memory while NNLC may gradually forget knowledge that it has learned. Corresponding theoretical analysis and simulation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of RTPL.

The ability to precisely perceive external physical interactions would enable robots to interact effectively with the environment and humans. While vision-based tactile sensing has improved robotic grippers, it is challenging to realize high resolution vision-based tactile sensing in robot arms due to presence of curved surfaces, difficulty in uniform illumination, and large distance of sensing area from the cameras. In this article, we propose a novel piezoluminescent skin that transduces external applied pressures into changes in light intensity on the other side for viewing by a camera for pressure estimation. By engineering elastomer layers with specific optical properties and integrating a flexible electroluminescent panel as a light source, we develop a compact tactile sensing layer that resolves the layout issues in curved surfaces. We achieved multipoint pressure estimation over an expansive area of 502 cm2with high spatial resolution, a two-point discrimination distance of 3 mm horizontally and 5 mm vertically which is comparable to that of human fingers as well as a high localization accuracy (RMSE of 1.92 mm). These promising attributes make this tactile sensing technique suitable for use in robot arms and other applications requiring high resolution tactile information over a large area.

Automation of abrasive machining operations (AMO) has become a challenging aspect in the remanufacturing industry where it is required to conduct operations on a surface of which the exact dimensions are unknown. In such cases, skilled human workers have to step in to perform labor-intensive tasks with inconsistent quality. In existing research work, collaborative robots are used to partially automate such operations under human supervision. However, these methods do not perform learning and control simultaneously and are often affected by the interactions of the human operator. In this paper, a novel learning and control scheme is proposed where the robot explores an unknown surface iteratively while achieving the desired contact control performance under supervision and occasional interference from the human operator. The unknown surface is divided into sub-regions, and the learning and control parameters are updated each time the robot visits each sub-region. This method is independent of the path of the robot and thus is unaffected by the irregularities introduced by a human operator's interactions. The proposed method is applied to force control, stiffness learning, and orientation adaptation cases. The validity of this method is shown via simulations as well as experiments conducted using a Kinova Gen3 7-DOF robot.

The control of lower-limb exoskeletons plays a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of walking assistance, but how to generate a reference signal still poses a significant challenge. Many existing approaches involve offline training and classifiers or depend on prefabricated models, lacking the adaptability needed to support diverse users and real-time scenarios with varying gait cycles. Meanwhile, balancing intervention on human limbs between compliance and assistance during learning is still an open problem. To address these issues, this article proposes a real-time learning method for walking assistance without classifiers, automatically adapting to alterations in motion patterns. The control law, based on adaptive admittance control and the equilibrium state, ensures stable assistance during learning with intuitive parameter tuning and allows for switching of gait during assistance. Utilizing selective memory recursive least squares in a neural network enables rapid learning and precise prediction of human users’ motion intention, without pretraining. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach achieves a prediction error within 6° after half a minute of learning with a prediction ahead time of 120 ms, outperforming classic approaches. The assistance performance is consistent despite varied control parameters, indicating a certain level of robustness.

When the persistent excitation (PE) condition is met, neural network control based on deterministic learning can approximate the true dynamics of nonlinear systems. However, in this approach, learning speed and accuracy are severely constrained by the PE level. In this article, we investigate the explicit relationship between the PE level and input signals. Specifically, this research investigates a neural network structure determined by the mechanical characteristics of a computer numerical control (CNC) machine tool. We explore a method to generate training trajectories that fill the designated feature space or repeatedly pass through hidden layer nodes, ensuring that deterministic learning achieves a sufficient PE level. Then, we validated the effectiveness of the proposed method through experiments conducted on a three-axis CNC machine tool using actual machining trajectories. The experimental results consistently confirmed that the generated training trajectories endow the RBF neural network with more feature information than random NURBS trajectories. Additionally, the tracking error and contour error of the CNC machine tool were significantly reduced.

In human-robot collaboration (HRC) tasks, the role of the robot should be naturally and smoothly transitioned between the leader and the follower to guarantee task performance. To realize this, the arbitration of the shared control between the human and the robot needs to be properly designed to assign a degree of leadership to the robot. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy logic-based arbitration rule with the help of Kalman filter (KF). Based on this rule, the arbitration can be continuously regulated between zero and one according to the interaction force and the velocity of the human-robot collaboration system with human intention taken into account. Besides, the distance between the system and the obstacle and more generally the environment is also served as a fuzzy input, so that the possible interaction with the environment, e.g., obstacle avoidance, can be considered to ensure system safety. Since our proposed arbitration rule is based on a fuzzy logic, it endows the robot with the capability of continuous reasoning without an explicit form. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by experiments.

One promising function of interactive robots is to provide a specific interaction force to human users. For example, rehabilitation robots are expected to promote patients' recovery by interacting with them with a prescribed force. However, motion uncertainties of different individuals, which are hard to predict due to the varying motion speed and noises during motion, degrade the performance of existing control methods. This article proposes a method to learn a desired reference trajectory for a robot based on dynamic motion primitives (DMPs) and iterative learning (IL). By controlling the robot to follow the generated desired reference trajectory, the interaction force can achieve a desired value. In our proposed approach, DMPs are first employed to parameterize the demonstration trajectories of the human user. Then, a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator is developed and combined with the Adam optimization method to update the trajectory parameters so that the desired reference trajectory of the robot is iteratively obtained by resolving the DMPs. Since the proposed method parameterizes the trajectories depending on the phase variable, it removes the essential assumption of traditional IL methods that the iteration period should be invariant, and thus, has improved robustness compared with the existing methods. Experiments are performed using an interactive robot to validate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme.

Contact tooling operations like sanding and polishing have been high in demand for robotics and automation, as manual operations are labour-intensive with inconsistent quality. However, automating these operations remains a challenge since they are highly dependent on prior knowledge about the geometry of the workpiece. While several methods have been developed in existing research to automate the geometry learning process and adjust the contact force, human supervision is heavily required in the calibration of workpieces and the path planning of robot motion in such methods. Furthermore, the stiffness identification of the workpiece is not considered in most of these methods. This paper presents a human-robot collaboration (HRC) framework, which is able to perform surface exploration on an unknown object combining the operator's flexibility with the control precision of the robot. The operator moves the robot along the surface of the target object, and the robot recognizes the surface geometry and surface stiffness while exerting a desired contact force through control. For this purpose, a mesh iterative learning control (MILC) is developed to learn the surface stiffness, plan the exploration path, and adjust contact force through repetitive online correction based on HRC. The proof of learning convergence and the results of the simulation and experiments performed using a 7-DOF Sawyer robot demonstrate the validity of the proposed controller.

Abstract In robot-assisted rehabilitation, the performance of robotic assistance is dependent on the human user’s dynamics, which are subject to uncertainties. In order to enhance the rehabilitation performance and in particular to provide a constant level of assistance, we separate the task space into two subspaces where a combined scheme of adaptive impedance control and trajectory learning is developed. Human movement speed can vary from person to person and it cannot be predefined for the robot. Therefore, in the direction of human movement, an iterative trajectory learning approach is developed to update the robot reference according to human movement and to achieve the desired interaction force between the robot and the human user. In the direction normal to the task trajectory, human’s unintentional force may deteriorate the trajectory tracking performance. Therefore, an impedance adaptation method is utilized to compensate for unknown human force and prevent the human user drifting away from the updated robot reference trajectory. The proposed scheme was tested in experiments that emulated three upper-limb rehabilitation modes: zero interaction force, assistive and resistive. Experimental results showed that the desired assistance level could be achieved, despite uncertain human dynamics.

Under the persistent excitation (PE) condition, the real dynamics of the nonlinear system can be obtained through the deterministic learning-based radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) control. However, in this scheme, the learning speed and accuracy are limited by the tradeoff between the PE levels and the approximation capabilities of the neural network (NN). Inspired by the frequency domain phase compensation of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, this paper presents an adaptive phase compensator employing the pure time delay to improve the performance of the deterministic learning-based adaptive feedforward control with the reference input known a priori. When the adaptive phase compensation is applied to the hidden layer of the RBFNN, the nonlinear approximation capability of the RBFNN is effectively improved such that both the learning performance (learning speed and accuracy) and the control performance of the deterministic learning-based control scheme are improved. Theoretical analysis is conducted to prove the stability of the proposed learning control scheme for a class of systems which are affine in the control. Simulation studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed phase compensation method.

In this paper, a contour error control strategy based on spatial iterative learning control (sILC) is developed for repetitive processing of five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools. A curve approximation method with an adaptive moving window is developed to achieve accurate tool position and orientation contour error estimation, and a five-axis contour error control strategy based on sILC is proposed. The compensation method is derived using an sILC algorithm to modify the geometric reference path instead of modifying the controller. The experimental results show that the proposed control strategy reduces contour errors of five-axis CNC machine tools, and it outperforms the traditional tracking error control. Note to Practitioners—This paper aims to propose an effective five-axis contour error control scheme. At present, most of the five-axis contour error control methods rely on the modification of the controller, which is not allowed in commercial CNC systems. Therefore, we propose a five-axis contour error compensation algorithm based on sILC, which modifies the system’s reference path. Experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce the five-axis contour errors, while maintaining the machining efficiency.

A popular path learning method is to use off-line programming by demonstration (PbD) to plan a rough path, but it is subjected to uncertainties in the environment so needs to be updated during the task execution. For this purpose, a spatial iterative learning control (sILC) is developed to learn an accurate path through intuitive online correction based on human-robot interaction (HRI). To improve the efficiency and accuracy of the path learning, a visual assistance system is added to HRI, which helps the robot to find the initial path point and complement the correction of the learning error. This method mitigates the requirement on classic ILC that the time period should be consistent in the repetitive interaction task and utilizes the complementary advantages of vision and force sensing, thus addressing the limitations of the vision-based or HRI methods. The rigorous proof of learning convergence and the results of the simulation and experiments on a 7-degree-of-freedom (DoF) Sawyer robot platform illustrate the significance and advantages of the proposed method.Note to Practitioners—The problem of accurate path learning of robotic manipulators is addressed in this paper, which is found in ample applications such as welding and laser cutting. When the required path is irregular, it is difficult to define it based on offline programming and calibration. This paper presents a new human-robot interactive learning framework, in which the interaction force and machine vision are combined with sILC to achieve online detection and correction for learning and tracking an unknown path. This framework leads to an intuitive human-robot collaboration system where the human operator can fine tune the robot’s motion through direct physical interaction, and at the same time the robot improves its tracking performance automatically based on visual servoing.

This article provides solutions for a single-leader–dual-follower teleoperation system to collaboratively transport an object. First, to regulate the direct-teleoperated follower robot (DFR), we employ a relative pose transformation algorithm, based on “refixing” the leader and DFR together, to enable that the operator can ergonomically guide DFR without requiring any specific initial position, ensuring a higher teleoperation precision at the same time. Second, to regulate the assistive follower robot (AFR), we provide an efficient technique to acquire the correct orientation to achieve holding. In addition, we devise an adjustable artificial potential field method to autonomously regulate AFR's position to a ready-to-hold position, where the operator's motion is involved. At last, based on the combination of the autoregressive model and the impedance model, we generate a reference trajectory for AFR to follow, which enables the followers to hold a rigid or a deformable object with a desired contact force. Simulations and experimental results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.

Previous works have developed impedance control to increase safety and improve performance in contact tasks, where the robot is in physical interaction with either an environment or a human user. This article investigates impedance learning for a robot guided by a human user while interacting with an unknown environment. We develop automatic adaptation of robot impedance parameters to reduce the effort required to guide the robot through the environment, while guaranteeing interaction stability. For nonrepetitive tasks, this novel adaptive controller can attenuate disturbances by learning appropriate robot impedance. Implemented as an iterative learning controller, it can compensate for position dependent disturbances in repeated movements. Experiments demonstrate that the robot controller can, in both repetitive and nonrepetitive tasks: first, identify and compensate for the interaction, second, ensure both contact stability (with reduced tracking error) and maneuverability (with less driving effort of the human user) in contact with real environments, and third, is superior to previous velocity-based impedance adaptation control methods.

Abstract In this paper, we propose a hybrid offline/online neural networks learning method, which combines complementary advantages of two types of neural networks (NNs): deep NN (DNN) and single-layer radial basis function NN (RBFNN). Firstly, after analyzing the mechatronic system’s model, we select reasonable features as the input of the DNN to learn the inverse dynamic characteristics of the closed-loop system offline, so as to establish the mapping between the desired trajectory and the reference trajectory of the system. The trained DNN is used to generate a new reference trajectory and compensate for the tracking error in advance, which can speed up the convergence of online learning control based on RBFNN. This reference trajectory is further modified iteratively when the tracking task is repeated. For this purpose, a single-layer RBFNN model is established, and an online learning algorithm is developed to update the RBFNN parameters. The proposed hybrid offline/online NN method can improve the tracking performance of mechatronic systems by modifying the reference trajectory on top of the baseline controller without affecting the system stability. To verify the effectiveness of this method, we conduct experiments on a piezoelectric drive platform.

In this article, a novel iterative learning control scheme is proposed for high-speed trains, aiming to track the desired reference displacement and velocity, where the Krasovskii function is constructed to compensate for the negative influence of unknown time-varying speed delays. The main feature of the proposed approach is that the hyperbolic tangent function and the command filter are integrated into the learning controller to overcome the singularity problem that may occur during the control process and relax the requirement for the derivability of the desired velocity. The stability of control system is strictly proved through establishing the composite energy function, and the effectiveness is confirmed via numerical simulations. Compared with the existing works, the merits of the proposed control scheme lie in that more general nonlinear uncertainties are imposed on the dynamic model of train instead of the Lipschitz condition, and the reference acceleration assigned by the railway department is not required.Note to Practitioners—High-speed train always runs periodically on the same railway, e.g., the same tunnels, slopes, and bridges, according to the scheduling plans developed by the railway department. Due to the repetitive operation pattern, the iterative learning control has the prospect of becoming an inherent method for devising the tracking controller of trains. Nevertheless, the unknown speed delays, which are inevitable due to the damping effect of wheel rails, couplers, and so on as well as the disturbance of external environments, may degrade the performance of control system and even cause instability in severe cases. As a result, this article exploits a compensation method to eliminate the effects of unknown delay under the iterative learning control framework, thus guaranteeing the safety of train operation and the comfort of passengers. To enhance the practicability, the hyperbolic tangent function is introduced to keep the continuity of control signal, and the command filter is synthesized to reduce the complexity of controller implementation. Although the stability analysis and numerical simulations have confirmed the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme, it is still expected to be verified by experiments in the future.

In this work, a human motion intention prediction method based on an autoregressive (AR) model for teleoperation is developed. Based on this method, the robot’s motion trajectory can be updated in real time through updating the parameters of the AR model. In the teleoperated robot’s control loop, a virtual force model is defined to describe the interaction profile and to correct the robot’s motion trajectory in real time. The proposed human motion prediction algorithm acts as a feedforward model to update the robot’s motion and to revise this motion in the process of human–robot interaction (HRI). The convergence of this method is analyzed theoretically. Comparative studies demonstrate the enhanced performance of the proposed approach. Note to Practitioners—In general, the robot trajectory is predetermined and it does not consider the influence of the interaction profiles in terms of position and interaction force between the human and the robot. In addition, it is hard to quantify the influence of interaction profile for the robot trajectory. For teleoperation, an AR-based model is proposed to predict the trajectory of the human and then to update the trajectory of the robot. The developed method includes the following aspects: 1) the robot trajectory can be regulated based on the interaction profiles; 2) the feedforward model can estimate the trajectory of the human to achieve the purpose of human intention recognition in advance for the robot; and 3) the proposed method can be potentially utilized for telerehabilitation, microsurgery, and so on.

In this article, an iterative-learning-based robotic controller is developed, which aims at providing a prescribed assistance or resistance force to the human user. In the proposed controller, the characteristic parameter of the human upper limb movement is first learned by the robot using the measurable interaction force, a recursive least square (RLS)-based estimator, and the Adam optimization method. Then, the desired trajectory of the robot can be obtained, tracking which the robot can supply the human’s upper limb with a prescribed interaction force. Using this controller, the robot automatically adjusts its reference trajectory to embrace the differences between different human users with diverse degrees of upper limb movement characteristics. By designing a performance index in the form of interaction force integral, potential adverse effects caused by the time-related uncertainty during the learning process can be addressed. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in supplying the prescribed interaction force to the human user. Note to Practitioners—This article concentrates on developing a novel control technique to make the robot supply a prescribed interaction force to the human user in the presence of time-related uncertainties. The proposed control method is applicable to various scenarios of the human–robot interaction, e.g., it can be used for rehabilitation robots to provide assistive or resistive force to stroke patients or for exoskeleton robots to provide assistive force to human users for completing heavy-load tasks. Moreover, the desired interaction force can be tailored for different human users according to their needs and different task objectives. Consequently, the proposed controller can serve diverse users and has a promising perspective in automation.

A spatial iterative learning control (sILC) method is proposed for a robot to learn a desired path in an unknown environment. When interacting with the environment, the robot initially starts with a predefined trajectory so an interaction force is generated. By assuming that the environment is subjected to fixed spatial constraints, a learning law is proposed to update the robot's reference trajectory so that a desired interaction force is achieved. Different from existing iterative learning control methods in the literature, this method does not require repeating the interaction with the environment in time, which relaxes the assumption of the environment and thus addresses the limits of the existing methods. With the rigorous convergence analysis, simulation and experimental results in two applications of surface exploration and teaching by demonstration illustrate the significance and feasibility of the proposed method.

How to enable robotic compliant manipulation has become a critical problem in the robotics field. Inspired by a biomimetic adaptive control strategy, this article presents a novel representation model named human-like compliant movement primitives (Hl-CMPs) which could allow a robot to learn human-like compliant behaviors. The state-of-the-art approaches can hardly learn complete compliant profiles for a specific task. Comparatively, our model can encode task-specific parametric movement trajectories, correspondingly associated with dynamic trajectories including both impedance and feedforward force profiles. The compliant profiles are learned based on a biomimetic control strategy derived from the human motor learning in the muscle space, enabling the robot to simultaneously learn the impedance and the force while executing the movement trajectories obtained from human demonstration. Furthermore, both the kinematic and the dynamic profiles are learned in the parametric space, thus enabling the representation of a skill using corresponding parameters (i.e, task-specific parameters). Hl-CMps can allow the robot to automatically learn compliant behaviors in an online manner after kinematic demonstration. Our approach is validated by an insertion task and a cutting task based on a KUKA LBR iiwa robot.

This article investigates human-driven robots via physical interaction, which is enhanced by integrating the human partner’s motion intention. A human motor control model is employed to estimate the human partner’s motion intention. A system observer is developed to estimate the human’s control input in this model, so that force sensing is not required. A robot controller is developed to incorporate the estimated human’s motion intention, which makes the robot proactively follow the human partner’s movements. Simulations and experiments on a physical robot are carried out to demonstrate the properties of our proposed controller.

Industrial automation requires robot dexterity to automate many processes such as product assembling, packaging, and material handling. The existing robotic systems lack the capability to determining proper grasp strategies in the context of object affordances and task designations. In this paper, a framework of task-oriented dexterous grasping is proposed to learn grasp knowledge from human experience and to deploy the grasp strategies while adapting to grasp context. Grasp topology is defined and grasp strategies are learned from an established dataset for task-oriented dexterous manipulation. To adapt to various grasp context, a reinforcement-learning based grasping policy was implemented to deploy different task-oriented strategies. The performance of the system was evaluated in a simulated grasping environment by using an AR10 anthropomorphic hand installed in a Sawyer robotic arm. The proposed framework achieved a hit rate of 100% for grasp strategies and an overall top-3 match rate of 95.6%. The success rate of grasping was 85.6% during 2700 grasping experiments for manipulation tasks given in natural-language instructions.

This paper presents a novel method for learning and tracking of the desired path of the human partner in physical human-robot interaction. Combining the Adam optimization algorithm with iteration learning control (ILC), a path learning method is designed to generate and update reference waypoints according to the human partner’s desired path. This method firstly uses the Adam optimization algorithm to update the robot’s reference waypoints in an online manner. Then, an ILC is developed to further modify the waypoints and reduce the difference between the robot’s actual path and the human partner’s desired path in an iterative manner. Simulations and experiments on a 7-DOF Sawyer robot are carried out to show the effectiveness of our proposed method.

This article proposes a Bayesian method to acquire the estimation of human impedance and motion intention in a human-robot collaborative task. Combining with the prior knowledge of human stiffness, estimated stiffness obeying Gaussian distribution is obtained by Bayesian estimation, and human motion intention can be also estimated. An adaptive impedance control strategy is employed to track a target impedance model and neural networks are used to compensate for uncertainties in robotic dynamics. Comparative simulation results are carried out to verify the effectiveness of estimation method and emphasize the advantages of the proposed control strategy. The experiment, performed on Baxter robot platform, illustrates a good system performance.

Transferring human stiffness regulation strategies to robots enables them to effectively and efficiently acquire adaptive impedance control policies to deal with uncertainties during the accomplishment of physical contact tasks in an unstructured environment. In this article, we develop such a physical human-robot interaction system which allows robots to learn variable impedance skills from human demonstrations. Specifically, the biological signals, i.e., surface electromyography are utilized for the extraction of human arm stiffness features during the task demonstration. The estimated human arm stiffness is then mapped into a robot impedance controller. The dynamics of both movement and stiffness are simultaneously modeled by using a model combining the hidden semi-Markov model and the Gaussian mixture regression. More importantly, the correlation between the movement information and the stiffness information is encoded in a systematic manner. This approach enables capturing uncertainties over time and space and allows the robot to satisfy both position and stiffness requirements in a task with modulation of the impedance controller. The experimental study validated the proposed approach.

It is widely acknowledged that drivers should remain in the control loop before automated vehicles completely meet real-world operational conditions. This paper presents an “indirect shared control” framework for steer-by-wire vehicles, which allows the control authority to be continuously shared between the driver and automation through an weighted-input-summation method. A “best-response” driver steering model based on model predictive control (MPC) for indirect shared control is proposed. Unlike any conventional driver model for manual driving, this model assumes that drivers can learn and incorporate the controller strategy into their internal model for predictive path following. The analytic solution to the driver model is provided to enable off-line simulations. A driving-simulator experiment was conducted to demonstrate the advantages of the indirect shared control system in a highway lane-keeping task. The result showed that the proposed indirect shared control method was effective to improve the subjects’ lane-keeping performance and reduce steering control effort. The proposed driver steering model was also validated by the experiment data, which produced a smaller prediction error than the conventional MPC driver model.

In human-robot collaborative transportation and sawing tasks, the human operator physically interacts with the robot and directs the robot's movement by applying an interaction force. The robot needs to update its control strategy to adapt to the interaction with the human and to minimize the interaction force. To this end, we propose an integrated algorithm of robot's trajectory adaptation and adaptive impedance control to minimize the interaction force in physical humanrobot interaction (pHRI) and to guarantee the performance of the collaboration tasks. We firstly utilize the information of the interaction force to regulate the robot's reference trajectory. Then, an adaptive impedance controller is developed to ensure automatic adaptation of the robot's impedance parameters. While one can reduce the interaction force by using either trajectory adaptation or adaptive impedance control, we investigate the task performance when combining both. Experimental results on a planar robotic platform verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In this paper, the formation tracking control is studied for a multiagent system (MAS) with communication limitations. The objective is to control a group of agents to track a desired trajectory while maintaining a given formation in nonomniscient constrained space. The role switching triggered by the detection of unexpected spatial constraints facilitates efficiency of event-triggered control in communication bandwidth, energy consumption, and processor usage. A coordination mechanism is proposed based on a novel role "coordinator" to indirectly spread environmental information among the whole communication network and form a feedback link from followers to the leader to guarantee the formation keeping. A formation scaling factor is introduced to scale up or scale down the given formation size in the case that the region is impassable for MAS with the original formation size. Controllers for the leader and followers are designed and the adaptation law is developed for the formation scaling factor. The conditions for asymptotic stability of MAS are discussed based on the Lyapunov theory. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the performance of proposed approaches.

In this paper, an admittance adaptation method has been developed for robots to interact with unknown environments. The environment to be interacted with is modeled as a linear system. In the presence of the unknown dynamics of environments, an observer in robot joint space is employed to estimate the interaction torque, and admittance control is adopted to regulate the robot behavior at interaction points. An adaptive neural controller using the radial basis function is employed to guarantee trajectory tracking. A cost function that defines the interaction performance of torque regulation and trajectory tracking is minimized by admittance adaptation. To verify the proposed method, simulation studies on a robot manipulator are conducted.

Humans can skilfully use tools and interact with the environment by adapting their movement trajectory, contact force, and impedance. Motivated by the human versatility, we develop here a robot controller that concurrently adapts feedforward force, impedance, and reference trajectory when interacting with an unknown environment. In particular, the robot's reference trajectory is adapted to limit the interaction force and maintain it at a desired level, while feedforward force and impedance adaptation compensates for the interaction with the environment. An analysis of the interaction dynamics using Lyapunov theory yields the conditions for convergence of the closed-loop interaction mediated by this controller. Simulations exhibit adaptive properties similar to human motor adaptation. The implementation of this controller for typical interaction tasks including drilling, cutting, and haptic exploration shows that this controller can outperform conventional controllers in contact tooling.

Shared control is an important approach to avoid the driver-out-of-the-loop problems brought by imperfect autonomous driving. Steer-by-wire technology allows the mechanical decoupling between the steering wheel and the road wheels. On steer-by-wire vehicles, the automation can join the control loop by correcting the driver steering input, which forms a new paradigm of shared control. The new framework, under which the driver indirectly controls the vehicle through the automation's input transformation, is called indirect shared control. This paper presents an indirect shared control system, which realizes the dynamic control authority allocation with respect to the driver's authority intention. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and benefits of the proposed control authority adaptation method.

In this paper, we propose a method of reference adaptation for robots in physical interactions with unknown environments. A cost function is constructed to describe the interaction performance, which combines trajectory tracking error and interaction force between the robot and the environment. It is minimized by the proposed reference adaptation based on trajectory parametrization and iterative learning. An adaptive impedance control is developed to make the robot be governed by the target impedance model. Simulation and experiment studies are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

In this paper, we present an adaptive control of robotic manipulators with parametric uncertainties and motion constraints. Position and velocity constraints are considered and they are unified and converted into the constraint of the nominal input. An adaptive neural network control is developed to achieve trajectory tracking, while the problems of motion constraints are addressed by considering the saturation effect of the nominal input. The uniform boundedness of all closed-loop signals is verified through Lyapunov analysis. Simulation and experiment results on a 2-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper presents an extreme learning machine (ELM)-based control scheme for uncertain robot manipulators to perform haptic identification. ELM is used to compensate for the unknown nonlinearity in the manipulator dynamics. The ELM enhanced controller ensures that the closed-loop controlled manipulator follows a specified reference model, in which the reference point as well as the feedforward force is adjusted after each trial for haptic identification of geometry and stiffness of an unknown object. A neural learning law is designed to ensure finite-time convergence of the neural weight learning, such that exact matching with the reference model can be achieved after the initial iteration. The usefulness of the proposed method is tested and demonstrated by extensive simulation studies.

In this paper, a novel control scheme is developed for a teleoperation system, combining the radial basis function (RBF) neural networks (NNs) and wave variable technique to simultaneously compensate for the effects caused by communication delays and dynamics uncertainties. The teleoperation system is set up with a TouchX joystick as the master device and a simulated Baxter robot arm as the slave robot. The haptic feedback is provided to the human operator to sense the interaction force between the slave robot and the environment when manipulating the stylus of the joystick. To utilize the workspace of the telerobot as much as possible, a matching process is carried out between the master and the slave based on their kinematics models. The closed loop inverse kinematics (CLIK) method and RBF NN approximation technique are seamlessly integrated in the control design. To overcome the potential instability problem in the presence of delayed communication channels, wave variables and their corrections are effectively embedded into the control system, and Lyapunov-based analysis is performed to theoretically establish the closed-loop stability. Comparative experiments have been conducted for a trajectory tracking task, under the different conditions of various communication delays. Experimental results show that in terms of tracking performance and force reflection, the proposed control approach shows superior performance over the conventional methods.

In this paper, we introduce a novel control scheme based on the social force model for robots navigating in human environments. Social proxemics potential field is constructed based on the theory of proxemics and used to generate social interaction force for design of robot motion control. A combined kinematic/dynamic control is proposed to make the robot follow the target social force model, in the presence of kinematic velocity constraints. Under the proposed framework, given a specific social convention, robot is able to generate and modify its path smoothly without violating the proxemics constraints. The validity of the proposed method is verified through experimental studies using the V-rep platform.

In this paper, we propose a framework to analyze the interactive behaviors of humans and robots in physical interactions. Game theory is employed to describe the system under study, and policy iteration is adopted to provide a solution of Nash equilibrium. The human's control objective is estimated based on the measured interaction force, and it is used to adapt the robot's objective such that human-robot coordination can be achieved. The validity of the proposed method is verified through a rigorous proof and experimental studies.

In this paper, a role adaptation method is developed for human-robot collaboration based on game theory. This role adaptation is engaged whenever the interaction force changes, causing the proportion of control sharing between human and robot to vary. In one boundary condition, the robot takes full control of the system when there is no human intervention. In the other boundary condition, it becomes a follower when the human exhibits strong intention to lead the task. Experimental results show that the proposed method yields better overall performance than fixed-role interactions.

In this paper, we propose an adaptive optimal control for a robot to collaborate with a human. Game theory and policy iteration are employed to analyze the interactive behaviors of the human and the robot in physical interactions. The human's control objective is estimated and it is used to adapt the robot's own objective, such that human-robot coordination can be achieved. An optimal control is developed to guarantee that the robot's control objective is realized. The validity of the proposed method is verified through rigorous analysis and experiment studies.

In this paper, optimal critic learning is developed for robot control in a time-varying environment. The unknown environment is described as a linear system with time-varying parameters, and impedance control is employed for the interaction control. Desired impedance parameters are obtained in the sense of an optimal realization of the composite of trajectory tracking and force regulation. Q -function-based critic learning is developed to determine the optimal impedance parameters without the knowledge of the system dynamics. The simulation results are presented and compared with existing methods, and the efficacy of the proposed method is verified.

In this paper, we propose a role adaptation method for human-robot shared control. Game theory is employed for fundamental analysis of this two-agent system. An adaptation law is developed such that the robot is able to adjust its own role according to the human's intention to lead or follow, which is inferred through the measured interaction force. In the absence of human interaction forces, the adaptive scheme allows the robot to take the lead and complete the task by itself. On the other hand, when the human persistently exerts strong forces that signal an unambiguous intent to lead, the robot yields and becomes the follower. Additionally, the full spectrum of mixed roles between these extreme scenarios is afforded by continuous online update of the control that is shared between both agents. Theoretical analysis shows that the resulting shared control is optimal with respect to a two-agent coordination game. Experimental results illustrate better overall performance, in terms of both error and effort, compared with fixed-role interactions.

This paper presents adaptive neural tracking control for a class of uncertain multiinput-multioutput (MIMO) nonlinear systems in block-triangular form. All subsystems within these MIMO nonlinear systems are of completely nonaffine pure-feedback form and allowed to have different orders. To deal with the nonaffine appearance of the control variables, the mean value theorem is employed to transform the systems into a block-triangular strict-feedback form with control coefficients being couplings among various inputs and outputs. A systematic procedure is proposed for the design of a new singularity-free adaptive neural tracking control strategy. Such a design procedure can remove the couplings among subsystems and hence avoids the possible circular control construction problem. As a consequence, all the signals in the closed-loop system are guaranteed to be semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded. Moreover, the outputs of the systems are ensured to converge to a small neighborhood of the desired trajectories. Simulation studies verify the theoretical findings revealed in this paper.

In this paper, we address the problem of non-metric navigation for mobile robot in indoor environment. With pure vision sensors, we tackle the most fundamental problem in autonomous mobile robot navigation - to achieve obstacle avoidance ability in mobile robot. We approach the problem by extracting time-to-contact information using optical flow and motion analysis. Our method is based on flow divergence which contains qualitative depth information of the environment. In addition, we presented a flexible robot heading decision making framework that is able to incorporate higher level navigation task on top of obstacle avoiding behaviour. A state-machine based control scheme is utilized for the coordination of the robot's action defined under a behaviour based design. Through virtual simulation and physical experiments, we demonstrated the effectiveness of our non-metric navigation strategy in unknown environment.

In this paper, model-free impedance control is designed for the safe human-robot interaction. A passive impedance model is imposed on the robot and a control method is proposed to guarantee the robot dynamics governed by the target model. The proposed method does not require any model information except for upper bounds of system matrix. It is thus easy to apply to practical implementation. The rigorous analysis of the control performance and robustness is presented. The validity of the proposed method is verified on the six degrees-of-freedom (DOF) PUMA 560 robot arm through simulation.

In this paper, adaptive neural network (NN) control is investigated for a class of block triangular multiinput-multioutput nonlinear discrete-time systems with each subsystem in pure-feedback form with unknown control directions. These systems are of couplings in every equation of each subsystem, and different subsystems may have different orders. To avoid the noncausal problem in the control design, the system is transformed into a predictor form by rigorous derivation. By exploring the properties of the block triangular form, implicit controls are developed for each subsystem such that the couplings of inputs and states among subsystems have been completely decoupled. The radial basis function NN is employed to approximate the unknown control. Each subsystem achieves a semiglobal uniformly ultimately bounded stability with the proposed control, and simulation results are presented to demonstrate its efficiency.

In this paper, adaptive control is investigated for a class of discrete-time nonlinear multi-agent systems (MAS). Each agent is of uncertain dynamics and is affected by other agents in its neighborhood. An agent is able to sense the outputs of the agents inside its neighborhood but is unable to sense those outside its neighborhood. Among all the agents, there is a hidden leader, which knows the desired tracking trajectory, but it is affected by and can only affect those agents inside its neighborhood while all other agents are not aware of its leadership. The decentralized adaptive control is designed for each agent by using the information of its neighbors. Under the proposed decentralized adaptive controls, both rigid mathematical proof and simulation studies are provided to show that all the agents are guaranteed to reach their common goal, i.e., following the desired reference.