Reference adaptive impedance control: a new paradigm for event-based robotic and telerobotic control

A new paradigm of event-based robotic and telerobotic control, referred to here as the reference adaptive impedance control, is presented for partially constrained robotic and telerobotic tasks under uncertain or unknown environmental constraints. The reference adaptive impedance control determines the desired next state adaptively, in such a way as to follow the optimal path from the current state, where the optimal path is generated with the environmental constraints updated through time. The embedded impedance control provides a mechanism for collecting more complete information on the environment. The reference adaptive impedance control also serves as a powerful tool for implementing shared control in teleoperation. A case study of robotic and telerobotic soil trenching is given with simulations.