Manipulation Primitives — A Universal Interface between Sensor-Based Motion Control and Robot Programming

Abstract

This paper introduces a generic framework for sensor-based robot motion control. The key contribution is the introduction of an adaptive selection matrix for sensor-based hybrid switched-system control. The overall control system consists of multiple sensors and open- and closed-loop controllers, in-between which the adaptive selection matrix can switch discretely in order to supply command variables for low-level controllers of robotic manipulators. How control signals are chosen, is specified by Manipulation Primitives, which constitute the interface to higher-level applications. This programming paradigm is formally specified in order to establish the possibility of executing sensor-guided and sensor-guarded motion commands simultaneously and in a very open way, such that any kind and any number of sensors can be addressed. A further key feature of this generic approach is, that the control structure can be directly mapped to a corresponding software architecture. The resulting control system is freely scalable depending on the performance requirements of the desired system.