Robust Impedance Control of a Compliant Microgripper for High-Speed Position/Force Regulation

High-speed simultaneous position and contact force control is vital for microgrippers dedicated to automated high-throughput microassembly tasks. This paper presents the design and validation of a new robust impedance control for high-speed position and force regulation of a compliant gripper which is driven by a piezoelectric stack actuator. Unlike traditional position/force switching control, the proposed scheme enables a smooth transition between the free and constrained motions of the gripper. A single controller is devised to regulate both the gripper tip position and the contact force, rendering a simplification in control design. The stability of the closed-loop system in the presence of piezoelectric nonlinearities is guaranteed by a digital sliding mode impedance control algorithm. Moreover, the proposed control scheme is applicable to high-order systems, and the control algorithm simplification enables a high-speed loop rate. The high-speed control is realized by deploying the algorithm to a field-programmable gate array controller. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified through experimental studies on grasp-hold-release operation of a graphite microrod. The control scheme can be extended to other microassembly systems as well.