A New Force Control Strategy Improving the Force Control Capabilities of Standard Industrial Robots

In this paper, a new force control strategy (FineForce) is proposed, which is intended to improve the force control capability of standard industrial robots. The strategy distinguishes between joints with low and high (force control) bandwidth and tries to utilize the individual performance of the robot joints, such that improved results concerning force control can be achieved. The paper describes the FineForce control strategy as well as its laboratory implementation, based on a standard industrial robot. On the basis of experimental investigations, the performance of FineForce is demonstrated and compared to conventional force control strategies. Furthermore the usability of the new strategy in an industrial application is shown by a robot-based grinding process.