The use of kinematic redundancy in reducing impact and contact effects in manipulation

The problem of reducing the potentially damaging effects caused by interaction of robotic manipulators with their environment is considered. The emphasis is on reducing the magnitude of impulsive forces created at the instant of contact, the effects of which are transmitted throughout the system. A model for impact dynamics for manipulator systems is introduced and used to analyze the effects of these impulsive forces. In particular, for the case of redundant manipulators, it is shown how the redundancy can be used to configure the mechanisms so as to reduce the resulting impulsive contact forces, thus utilizing redundancy to aid in environmental interaction