Design of the 6-axis Compliance Device with F/T Sensing for Robotic Force Control Applications

In this paper, the design of a novel six-axis compliance device with force/torque sensing and the position/force control algorithm are presented. Unlike the traditional control methods using a force/torque sensor with very small compliance, this method employs a compliance device to provide sufficient compliance between an industrial robot and a rigid environment. This position/force control method can be performed by simply controlling the position of an industrial robot with twists of compensation, which can be decomposed into twists of compliance and twists of freedom. A simple design method of a six-axis parallel-type compliance device with a diagonal stiffness matrix is presented. The six-axis compliance device prototype was developed with cantilever beams and strain gauges. One simple position/force control experiment has been performed to verify the effectiveness of the proposed control method.