Adaptive Force/Velocity control for opening unknown doors1

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The problem of door opening is fundamental for robots operating in domestic environments. Since these environments are generally unstructured, a robot must deal with several types of uncertainties associated with the dynamics and kinematics of a door to achieve successful opening. The present paper proposes a dynamic force/velocity controller which uses adaptive estimation of the radial direction based on adaptive estimates of the door hinge's position. The control action is decomposed into estimated radial and tangential directions, which are proved to converge to the corresponding actual values. The force controller uses reactive compensation of the tangential forces and regulates the radial force to a desired small value, while the velocity controller ensures that the robot's end-effector moves with a desired tangential velocity. The performance of the control scheme is demonstrated in simulation with a 2 DoF planar manipulator opening a door.