The multi-rate sampling control for a reconfigurable robot

The conventional demand on robots in industrial fields has been oriented mainly to mass production, but the demand nowadays is diverse to meet the trend toward high-variation and low-quantity production. To meet this trend change, we have proposed a reconfigurable robot system that can satisfy various demands by easily changing the robot configuration. In this paper, we construct a multi-rate sampling control system for a reconfigurable robot to achieve better performance. The shorter the output sampling period becomes, the better performance is achieved even with a longer input sampling period. Moreover, we can improve the velocity response and accuracy of reproduction of the force more than the conventional single-rate sampling control system. Firstly, we describe the concept of a reconfigurable robot. Secondly, the decentralized control in the system consisting of the local and the central intelligences is explained. Thirdly, we simply describe an acceleration control for a reconfigurable robot. Fourthly, the advantage of the multi-rate sampling control is explained. Lastly, the effectiveness of the proposed system is confirmed by several experimental results.