Robotic implementation of realistic reaching motion using a sliding mode/operational space controller

Abstract

It has been shown that a task-level controller with minimal-effort posture control produces human-like motion in simulation. This control approach is based on the dynamic model of a human skeletal system superimposed with realistic muscle like actuators whose effort is minimised. In practical application, there is often a degree of error between the dynamic model of a system used for controller derivation and the actual dynamics of the system. We present a practical application of the task-level control framework with simplified posture control in order to produce life-like and compliant reaching motions for a redundant task. The addition of a sliding mode controller improves performance of the physical robot by compensating for unknown parametric and dynamic disturbances without compromising the human-like posture. © 2009 Springer.