Whole-body force sensation by force sensor with end-effector of arbitrary shape

Whole-body force sensation with a simple configuration is desirable for robots in human environment. This paper deals with a force sensor-based whole-body force sensing technique of robots and expand it to arbitrary shape end-effectors. Previous techniques could not deal with a non-convex-shaped end-effector since multiple candidates of contact points exist for contact position identification. The problem was solved by explicitly using the property of an external force vector whose direction changes with respect to time. It was found that inertial force degraded the detection rate in cases in which vibration occurred in the end-effector, but it was possible to improve the rate by acquiring data over a longer period of time. It was empirically confirmed that accurate whole-body force sensation is feasible using a non-convex-shaped end-effector.