Copyright © 1996lFAC lb-Ol 1

13th Tri~nnial World Congress. San Francisco, USA

IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT FORCE CONTROLLERS FOR

RHEO-HOLONOMICALLY CONSTRAINED MANIPULATORS AND
THEIR EXTENSIONS TO DISTRIBUTED COOPERATION
CONTROL
Yun-Hui Liu * Suguru Arimoto·*
Dept. of Mechanical and Automation Engineering
The Chinesf Uni11ersily of Hong Kong, 8hatill, N. T .. Hong Kong
yhliu@m,,,.cuhk.hk
** Dept. of Ma~h€matical Engineering and Infu1'malwll Physicb
Univ('Tsity of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo, Tokyo. Japan

Abstract. This paper deals with position and force tracking of manipulators with
end-effectors constrained on time-varying surfaces. Two controllers respectively with-
out and with force feedback are proposed by using the joint-space orthogonalization
scheme, which dt~couplcs position and force signals in the joint-spaces. It will be shown
that energy-bast'd Lyapunov functions guarantee exponential convergences of both
tht:' position and force errors. The controllers are further generalized to distributed
or decentralized coop(~ration control of multiple manipulators. Unlike centralized con-
trollers, our cont.rollers have simple structures and are easy t.o implement even for
systems with many manipulators.

Keywords. Constraints, Manipulators, Force control, Exponential stability.

Distributed control,

1. INTRODlTC'TIO'< joint-space orthogonalization tlcheme decouples the po-

sition and force control by using projected position sig-
Force control has been onc of hottest. topics in robot.ics nals onto the tangent space and projected force signals
since 1980s. and various methods including hybrid con- onto the force space, Since t.he controller assumes no
trol (RaiberL and Craig. 1981, Khatib, 1987, Yoshikawa, prior knowledge of robotic models, it only givetl rise to
1987. MaC'lamroch and Wang. 19SR, Arimoto, et aI, asymptotic convergence of the tracking errors.
1993. Parra-Vega, et aI, 1994) have been developed. Most
This paper shows that the control performance can be
force cont.rollers only concern robotic motion holonom-
improved in case robotic. models are available, and pro-
ically constrained on static geometric surfaces. How-
poses t.wo exponentially stable controllers, which work
ever, many applications. such as assembly task on mo-
011 the salIle principle as thaL in (Liu, et ai, t 995a) but
bile platforms, in industries require compliant motion on
assume exact knowledge of the robotic models. They re-
moving surfaces, which is a typical rheo-holollomically
alize the position control by feeding back the projected
constrained motion. Few literature can be found on con-
trajectory errors onto the tangential space! but achieve
trol of rheo-holonomically const.rained motion. Similar
the force control in different ways. The first controller
to the controller proposed by MaClamroch and Wang
called implicit fCH'et controller only uses a feedforward
(1988) for holoIlomically constrained motion, t.he COI1-
of the desired force, Howcvcr. in addition to the feed-
t.roller in (Peng, et, al, 1993) is designed in the reduced
forward, the second controller called e.xplicit force. con-
space lIsing t.he independent. coordinat,es. A shortcoming
tTOllerincludes a loop of force feedback. Exponential sta-
of this controller is lIsing tilE' aC<':('lerat.ion whose mea-
bility of the cont.rollers are guaranteed by energy-based
surement is not only noisy but also opposite the causal-
Lyapunov functions, This paper further presents their
ity. The authors (Liu, et ai, 199.5a) also proposed an
ext.ension t.o distributed/decentralized cooperation con-
adaptive controller for rheo-holonomically constrained
trol of multi-manipulator systems, in which constraints
motion, which is based on tilt" joint.-space orthogonal-
on individual manipulators can virtually be considered
izatioIl scheme (Arimoto, et aI, 199:n and the model-
a.~ rheo-holonornic by processing motion of the others
based adaptive algorithm (Slotine and Li, 1987). The
as moving surfaces, Compared to centralized controllers

1
(Nakamura, et ai , 1989, Tarn , et ai , 1987, Uchiyama,
et ai , 1987, Wen and Kreutz, 1989) , our decentralized
cooperation controllers have simpler structures and are
ea.qy to implement. Finally, simulation results will be
shown to demonstrate stability of OUt contro llers.
2, MOTION CONSTRAINTS AND ROBOTIC
DYNAMICS
Denote the joint angles of a manipulator with N revolu~
tive joints by an N dimensional vedor q. Wheu the cno-
effector of the manipulator is constrained on M moving
surfaces represented by
'P(X, tl = 0,
where x is the world coordina.l,e , q must satisfy
'P(((q) , I) = 0,
where x = ~(q) means forward kinematics of the manip-
ulator. it should be noted that. time t exists explicit ly
in eq. (1). The constraints with an explicit t are said
rheo-ho10nomic , By differentiating eq, (I) ,
where J,(q , t)(= o'P/oq) is a M by N matrix, and
.
p(q, t)
~
= a
-o'P(q, I),
ot
p( q ) t'L called varying tle/oeity of the constraints . depends
on t.h~ir ch;mge rates. Under the constraints , the manip-
ulator complies the following dynami cs:
H(q)ij + (~iI(q) + C( q, q))<i + G(q) = T + J;(q)/(4)
where H(q) is t he inertial matrLx , and C(q l <i) a skew-
symmetric matrix. G(q) expresses the gravity term , and
T t.h e input torque, / is the M x 1 Lagrange multipliers,
Physically, J;;(q) f is the reanion force exerted on the
rob ot from the moving surfaces.
Before moving to the controllers, wc: suppose
Assumption 1 The desired trajectory, i.e. desired po-
sition qd , desired 'v elocity qd and drstred a,ceeie-ration.
qd are bounded. Fad/tcr. llu dc~i1"nl forn: fd is also
bounded,
Assumption 2 The f)}.o1Ji ng sur/afe/; move at bounded
ve locdics.
For revolutive manipulators, :p(q : t) is concerned with q
by tri gonometri c funct.ions. Assumpt.ion 2 impli ~s ho unded
J.,,(q , I), bounded p(q , t) , and bounde~ p(q , I),
3, THE JOINT-SPACE ORTHOGONALlZATION
Suppose that matrix J, (q , t) always has a rank M , The
column vectors of Jtp( q, t) s pa.n a M dimensional s pace
n(q , I) , to which the interactive force J.,,(q,l)f between
th e manipulator and the , urfaces belongs, The orthog-
anal complement. of n(q , I) is represented by Tp(q , tj, It
must specially he point.f!d out that the joint velocity q
does not. helong t.o space Tp(q, t) in rheo-holonomically
constrained motions.
The joint-space orthogonalization meth od is a scheme
for decoupling force and position signals in ajoint space.
In t.his me.thod, t.he force signals are orthogonally pro-
jected ont.o space n(q, t) and the trajectory signals onto
space Tp(q , t), The orthogonal projections are realized
through the following matri<es P(q, I) and Q(q, t), re-
spectively(Lill , et. ai , 1995a):
(I)
PIg , t) = J~(q, t)J.,,(q , t) (5)
Q(q , tl = 1- P(q , tj =I - J~(q , t)J.,,(q , t) (6)
where J:;(q , t) is the pseudo-inverse of J.,,( q, t):
(7)
(2)
By using Q(q, I), the joint velocity q can be decomposed
into two parts, which belong to different spaces:
(3)
4= Q(q, tlq + (1- Q(q , t»)4
= Q(q, tJq + J~(q, t)J,(q, t)q (8)
From the definition of /'irq , t) ,
q = Q(q, I)q + ':; (q , t)/'i(q , t) (9)
4. AN IMPLICIT FORCE CO NT ROLLER
Force control does not necessarily require a force feed-
back, that. will be demonstrated by ou r first controller,
which realizes the force control only by a fe~dforward
term of the desired force. In this controller, a nominal
reference qr is introduced as follows :
(10)
where r is a po..qit.ive COllstanl, a Dd
qd denotes the desired joint. angle, and qd tbe desired
velocity. The two parts of qr are clearly orthogonal to
each ot.her. Differentiating eq. (10) derivE".s
2
 q, = Q(q , t)(iid - 'Y~ri) + Q(q, t)(rid - r~q) D(g) is of full rank because H(q) is positive definite.
+J; (q, t)p(q , t) + j;(q , t)V(q, t) (11) From convergence of s, it is possible to prove bounded-
ness of q, which fur t her implies boundedness of j",(q , t) .
[t must be pointed o ut. that. t he nominal reference does Conseq uently, tJ.J goes to zero exponentially if 8 is ex-
not include a ny force term . From eq:-;. (9) a.nd (10) , tt.n ponentially stable. 0
error vecto r s is
Renlark 3 The asymptoti c converg ence of s implies that
s~ ri - ri,· = Q(q, t)(~q + r~q) (12) of the trajectory error 6.q when th e initial position error
is not large(Anmoto, et ai, 1993, L iu, et ai, 1995b).
Physi cally, s is the projected trajectory error onto th e
space Tp( q, t). p( q, t) and p( q, t) in 4, and ij, are directly
calculated from the c.ons t.raints. The joint torque is then 5. AN EXPLICIT FORCE CO NTROLLER
given by
This section considers the controller design when a force
feedback is used. Suppose that a force sensor is equ ipped
T = H (q)ij, + ( ~H( q) + C(q, <ilJri, + G(q) at the endpoint of the rnanipuiatorso that force f can be
- [( ,s - J~( q , t)Jd ( 13) measured on-line during the motion, Similar t.o previous
case: we introdu('e" a nomi nal reference 9r .
Here Id denotes the magnitude of the desired force; I.....
is a positive definit.e matrix. Substituting eq. (13) into ri, ~ Q(q , t)(qd - r~q) - J;t (q,t)(,.,(q,t) - A~F) .( 19)
t he dynami c equa.tion (4) result.s in the error dynamics:
where l' and ..\ are positive cons tants, and
H (g)' + (~H(q) + C(q,q»)" - J~(g, t)l'.J = -K.s(14) /

where ill = f - Id is t.he force error.

~F = J~fdt
o
Theorem 1 The controller in eq. (J.3) giv es rise lo ex·
pon entially convergenCE of sand 6.f. ~J denotes the force error. The difference from eq. (10)
lies in term ~F. Differentiating eq. (19) leads to ij,:
Proof: First of alL introduce a scalar function:

v = ~sT
2
ll(q)s (15 ) ij, = Q(q, t)(ijd -,~q) + Q(q, t)(qd - 'Y~g)

- ~ {J;(q, t)(p(q, t) - '\~F)}. (20)

\/ is clearly non-negative. From the error dynamics (14 )
and orthogonalization of s alltl J cp (q, i), Then , the residual error s is

v-- sT H(q)s + ~sT if(q )s

s ~ q - q, = Q(q, t)(~4 + ,l'.q) - >.J: (q, t)l'.F.(21)
2
=_ sT K.s + sT J~(q, t)~J = _.T K . . (16) The first part is the projected trajectory error , and the
second part the projected force error. Clearly, they are
Clearly •.tt is exponentially convergenl. to zero as t ime t orthogonal to each other. Th e- controller is then given as
approaches to the infinity.
Multiply ing J(g, t)H-1(q) to eq. (14) derives T = H(q)ij, + (~H(q) + e(q, ri»4, + G(q)
D(q)~f = J~(q, t), - B(q, q)s ( 17) -K,. - T
J", (g, t)(fd - I<Jl'.F) , (22)

where where f{~ and l{, are p ositi vf~ definite matrices. Substi-
tuting eq. (22) int,o the dyna mic equation (4) , we get.
the following error dynamics:
D(q) = J~(q,t)H-l(q)JT(q,t)
B(g , q) = Jop(q , t)Wl(q){ ~H(q) + C(q , q) + K.} H(q) s + (~H(q) + G(q,ti»s - J~(q . t)l'.J =
Since J", (q , t) s = 0, J",(q, I); = -j",(q , t) • . Substitut ing -I<,. + I<JJ~(q) ~F. (23)
this into eq. (L7) gives rise t.o
Theorenl 2 The controller f.q. (22) gives rise to crpo-
D(q)~J = - ( B(g , q) + J,,(q , t».. (18) ncniially asymptotic convergtnct! of errors sand tl..F_

3
Proof: First, define an non-negative scalar funct.ion: 6.1 Motion con.o;traints

(24) In this paper. the research is restricted to holonomic

From the erro r dynamics (23) .
11 = _sT 1(,8 - >'tl.F T Kftl.F
Since matrices J<.3 and Kj are positive definite and A is
positive, V il:i never positive. Furt.hermore, both sand
D-.F exil:it in th e right side of eq. (25). Therefore, sand
t:J..F are exponentialiy stable. 0
Theorem 3 In lhe conlroller tq. (22), th e force error
t:J..f is also expon ent·i ally stable..
cooperative tasks, such as handling an object, of L nOIl-
redundant manipulators, in wbi ch the manipulators are
subject to the followin g m otion const raints:
(25)
<p(q"q" .... qLl = 0, (29)
where qj repre~enis joint. angles of manipulator i. The
motion constraints are holonomi c in t erm of (q}, Q2, ... , qL).
For individual manipulators, however , the constraints
can be considered as rheo-holon omic . In t his case, joint.
angles of other robots play a role of time t. Differentiat-
mg eq. (2~J) results in

Proof: From definition of s. (30)

J~ (q . t) s = -tl.F (26)
where J", . = {}>P(Ql , Q2 , --. , qd /{}Qi and
L
Differentiating eq . (26) leads to
."
Pi = - "
L-J<p ,qi' (3l )
J", (q , t).' = -!'>f - ) ",( q . tls (27) j = I,i;t i

Mul tiplying J",(q, t)H -I (q) t,o the error dynamics from Pi corresponds to the varying veloci ty of the motion con-
the left side leads to straints. The integral of Pi is
,

where
D(q)tl.f = B(q,q)s - E(q)tl.F (28)
Pi = J
o
J,,i/idt. (32)

Once a desired t.rajectory is specified, the desired values

D(q ) = I + J",( q, t)H - 1
(q)/;: (q. t)
Pet; and Pd, can b e cakulated in the follo ..... ing way:
1 . .
B (q, q) = J",(q , t)H-1(q){ 2 H(ql + C(q , q) - J", (q , t) + K,} ,
E(q) = J",(q , l )H - l(q)I\ f J~' (q . t)
Pd. = J~, (qd"qd, .. .. , qdL)qd" Pd. = J
o
Pd.dt (33)
Clearly: U(q ) is of full ra nk . Conver,!!;ence of s guaran-
tees boulldedoess of q, whi ch further leads to bounded Since the motion constraints mU!lt hold on a desired tra-
B(q , q) . Consequentl y, we ca.n conclude exponential con- jectory,
vergence of a..J beca.use sand !:IF are exponentially sta-
L
ble. O
L Pd, = 0, (34)
Remark 4 Cain>. of the forn eITor tl.f in th e nominal
referen.ce fir could be very small without any influence on
th, stahility. A sm all ,\ implies a weak direct f eedba ck of From eq. (34) and definitions of Pi and Pi, clearly
the force , and hencc the ca-nsalzty is apprOXImately guar- n
anteed. Beeaus< of el'iS/fllce of tl.F. the force f eedba ck L!:"Pi = 0, L
" tl.Pi = 0, (35)
wOf·ks we.ll r. Vt~ n. f or a sm.all A.

o. EXTENSION TO DECENTRALIZED
COOPERATION CONTROL
6.2 The decenlrali:ed controllers
This section presents extension of th€' controllers previ-
o usly pro posed to decentralized cooperation control of The decentralized cooperation controllers a.re basically
multi-manipulator systems. extensi ons. of our previous co ntrollers . In eqs. (11) a nd

4
(20), the term p(q, t) is computable from explicit ex-
pression of rheo-holonomic constraints. In a cooperative
system, however, Pi depends on the acceleration qi (see
eq. (31 »,
whose measurement suffers from causaHty and
large noise. To solve this problem, thp nominal reference
qr; is modified as follows:
• Implicit cooperation control:
• Explicit cooperation controL
qc, ~ Qi(qd, -li~q;) + J;%,(j}d,
Here i is index of the robot. Q1 denotes the projection
matrix, and Pd; desired value of Pi. ;::1 is a positive con-
stant. The key point is replacing p(q,t) by (Pd, -;3~p,)
so that the acceleration is not. f(,quired in the controller.
The joint torques of rohot 'f an~ giW-'ll in similar forms
to those in eqs. (13) and (22). respectively.
Theorem 4 The implicit and explicit distributed coop·
{,Tation controllers gil1f rise to crponcntially asymptotic
convergence of Si and t1J.
Proof: We first prove the implicit cont.roller. The error
dynamics of robot i has the form:
1 The simulations were done hy MatLab at a sampling
Hi(q;)S, + (-iH,(q,) + C,(qi,qi))Si = -f{"s, +
Tnt.roduce the following non-negat.ive scalar function:
L
V =~L ": Hi(q , )-"
/=1
Multiplying sf to the error dynamics derives
L A
V= - L si K"s, + L(~p, + ;3~p, )~f
i=l i=l
From eq. (35), the last. t.erm in eq. (37) disappears. Since
Si exists in the right side, it. goes to zero exponentially
as t --+ 00. A simila.r discussion to Theorem 1 results
in exponential convergence of t1j. The case of the ex-
plicit controller can be proved by using the following
Lyapunov function:
L first controller does not use any force feedback. Although
V = ~ LisT H,(q;)Si + ),i~FT ~F}.
i=l
7. SIMULATIONS
In order to show usefulness and properties of the con-
trollers, two simulations using the six DOF manipulator
ETA3, which was developed at the ETL, Japan, have
been carried out. In the simulations, the ETA3 manipu-
lator lS required t.o trace a circle of radius O.07m with a
desired force Id = ION m and a desired angular velocity
7r(rad/s) on a moving plane represented by (Fig. Ib)
(- sin <1', 0, cosu)(x - 0.55, y, z - 0.2f = O. (38)
where Cl' denotes the angle between the plane and the
$ - axiS. The a changes its value according to
7r 7r
- fi~Pi + Ai~F)
,,= 4 + 12 sin (7rt). (39)
The center of the circle is located at (0.55,0.0, 0.2)m.
Fig. 2 shows the results of the implicit force controller.
and Fig. 3 the results of the explicit force controller. The
results ascertained
• The position errors go to zero exponentially in both
controllers.
• The force errors also go t.o zero exponentially. How-
ever, the convergence is faster in the explicit con-
troller than in the implicit controller.
Here the gains are chosen as 'Y :::: 2.0, A =
0.01, Ks =
diag{50.0, 30.0,50.0,10.0,10.0, 0.5} and Kj = 100.01.
J~,~f. time of
(36)
(37) Fig. 1. Setup of the simulation.
8. CONCLUSIONS
This paper proposed two hybrid controllers for robots
with end-effectors constrained on moving geometric suc-
faces, i.e. subject to rheo-holonomic constraints, The
a direct force feedback exists in the second controller,
the causality can approximately be guaranteed by a small
force gain because the force control is basically realized
through integral of the force error. Both controllers give
rise to exponential convergenc.es of the position and force
errors. The controllers are furt.her extended to decentral-
ized cooperation control of mult.iple manipulators. Un-
like a centralized controller, our cooperation controllers
5
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