An Experimental Comparison of Tradeoffs in Using Compliant Manipulators for Robotic Grasping Tasks

Controllers developed for control of flexible-link robots in hybrid force-position control tasks by a new singular perturbation analysis of flexible manipulators are implemented on an experimental two-robot grasping setup. Performance criteria are defined for the grasping task. We present preliminary experimental data to show the tradeoffs between controller complexity and performance enhancement as we deal with greater flexibility. Various performance criteria are set up and experimental results are discussed within that setting. We conclude that large flexibility can be controlled and can lead to reasonable performances.