Contact transition control with semiactive soft fingertips

We address the problem of controlling contact forces generated when the fingers of a robot close on an object or make contact with surfaces in the robot´s environment. The use of controllable fingertip materials is proposed to enhance system performance and avoid contact instability problems that can arise with noncollocated sensors and actuators. We describe a novel fingertip employing an electrorheological fluid and present the results of experiments to evaluate its capabilities when used with a robot contacting a stationary object at various speeds. Having characterized the fingertip behavior as a function of applied voltage, we turn to the question of optimal control, Using a simplified dynamic model of a robot equipped with a controllable electrorheological fingertip, we obtain a piece-wise optimal solution for the fingertip damping as a function of time, to minimize settling time while satisfying constraints on the contact forces