Simulation of force control algorithms for serial robots

The advantages of using force control in industrial or other type of robotic systems are well known. Study of such systems in virtual environment in the form of simulation is of great help for the design of a controller or a robot. In this paper, we show how to simulate different force control algorithms of a typical serial robot used in the industries before deciding to choose a suitable one for real implementation. This was done using an add-on to MATLAB® Simulink® known as “SimMechanics®”. Note that Simulink is an established framework for the analysis and simulation of control algorithms. Hence, our intention was to demonstrate the integration of the dynamic model of a serial robot using SimMechanics toolbox with MATLAB Simulink toolbox, e.g., Control and others.