Real-time implementation and evaluation of model-based controls on CMU DD Arm II

This paper presents the experimental results of the real-time performance of model-based control algorithms. We compare the computed-torque scheme which utilizes the complete dynamics model of the manipulator with the independent joint control scheme which assumes a decoupled and linear model of the manipulator dynamics. The two manipulator control schemes have been implemented on the CMU DD Arm II with a sampling period of 2 ms. Our initial investigation shows that the computed-torque scheme outperforms the independent joint control scheme as long as there is no torque saturation in the actuators.