Rigid body load identification for manipulators

A method for estimating the mass, the center of mass, and the moments of inertia of a rigid body load during general manipulator movement is presented. The algorithm is derived from the Newton-Euler equations and incorporates measurements of the force and torque from a wrist force/torque sensor and of the arm kinematics. The identification equations are linear in the desired unknown parameters, which are estimated by least squares. We have implemented this identification procedure on a PUMA 600 robot equipped with an RTI FS-B wrist force/torque sensor, and on the MIT Serial Link Direct Drive Arm equipped with a Barry Wright Company Astek wrist force/torque sensor.