An impedance control strategy for cooperative manipulation

In this paper an impedance control strategy is devised for a system of manipulators tightly grasping a common rigid object. In order to avoid internal loading at the object, a 6-DOF impedance behaviour is imposed at each of the end-effector. Moreover, impedance control is also adopted to achieve a compliant behavior of the object when interaction with the external environment occurs. The overall control scheme is derived according to an inverse dynamics strategy with an inner motion loop for each of the manipulator, providing robustness to unmodeled dynamics and disturbances