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Force-directed control with a strong hydraulic manipulator

The nuclear maintenance task of nozzle dam placement lends itself to investigations in robotic automation. This task involves insertion of a heavy payload within tight tolerances and requires the use of a strong, inherently imprecise manipulator, such as the Schilling Titan II hydraulic robot. To address the challenge of automating this task, an experimental system is designed to allow development of advanced control methods and an operator interface. A Base Sensor Control (BSC) algorithm is applied in concert with a Geometric and Elastic Error Correction (GEC) method to improve manipulator absolute accuracy. Experimental data supports that the repeatability and absolute position accuracy achieved the resolution of the position sensors. A virtual environment teleoperation application is presented. It was implemented by integrating a 3-D kinematic simulation of the manipulator with the control computer. This interface provides improved visualization of the workspace. The use of force information to aid in insertion is explored. For known geometries, a method is developed for estimating contact points using a wrist force/torque sensor. The use of this information in the teleoperation application and automatic placement algorithms is explored. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Steven Dubowsky Title: Professor of Mechanical Engineering