A new concept of the human-robots collaboration is introduced in this system; the task is shared among the human and the robots. The robots appropriately deform and support the object, so that the human can easily handle it by only applying his/her intentional force to the object. First, the controller of multiple robots is designed so as to decrease the effect of noises from force sensors. Then deformation control of the flexible object is designed using the internal force applied to the object. The control system is experimentally implemented in a dual manipulator system which consists of two industrial robots. The experimental results illustrate the concept of the system.

Proposes a control algorithm of dual manipulators handling a flexible sheet metal. How to bend a sheet metal and how to manipulate the deformed sheet are discussed in this paper. First the authors derive the relation between the static deformation of the sheet metal and the bending moments exerted on the sheet using Lagrange's equation based on a finite element model of the sheet. The authors then design a control algorithm by which the motion of the manipulated sheet is controlled using the resultant force applied to the sheet and the deformation of the sheet is controlled using the internal force applied to the sheet. Since the rigidity of the deformed sheet is not uniform, that is, the stiffness of the deformed sheet may depend on the direction along which the external force is applied, the authors cannot use the compliance of the flexible sheet for tasks having interactions between the sheet and its environment. The proposed control algorithm is designed so that the apparent impedance of the manipulated sheet metal is specified. The experimental results using industrial robots illustrate the validity of the proposed control system.

This paper proposes a unified coordinated motion control algorithm of manipulators, which is applicable to both manipulation of an object and a parts-mating task. First, the authors consider the manipulation of an object by impedance controlled manipulators; the impedance of each arm is designed so that the apparent impedance of the manipulated object is specified. Then the authors consider the parts-mating problem using the same control algorithm proposed for the manipulation of a single object. The authors propose a method to design the impedance of each arm so that the relative motion of two manipulators has the dynamics of the remote center compliance. The experimental results using two industrial robots illustrate the validity of the proposed control system.>