In conventional setpoint control problem of robots, the desired position is specified as a point. However, it is interesting to observe from most human reaching movements that the desired targets are regions rather than points. In fact, when the desired region is specified arbitrarily small, it reduces to a point. In this paper, we propose a new control concept called region reaching control for robots. In this new control concept, the desired objective can be specified as a region instead of a point. Since the desired region can be specified arbitrarily small, the region control concept is also a generalization of setpoint control problem. Experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed controllers.

In conventional setpoint control problems of robot, the desired position is specified as a point. However, in some applications, the desired target is a region instead of a point. In this paper, we propose a new control concept called region reaching control for robot manipulators. In this new control concept, the desired objective can be specified as a region instead of a point. Several region reaching controllers are proposed in task space. Since the desired region can be specified arbitrarily small, the region control concept is also a generalization of setpoint control problem. Lyapunov-like functions are presented for the convergence analysis. Experiment results based on a SONY SCARA robot are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed region reaching controllers.