Emulation of robots interacting with environment

In this paper, we present a methodology for emulation of a target robot operating in a complex environment by using an actual robot. The emulation scheme aims to replicate the dynamical behavior of the target robot interacting with an environment, without dealing with a complex calculation of the contact dynamics. This method forms a basis for the task verification of a flexible space robot. The actual emulating robot is structurally rigid, while the target robot can represent any class of robots, e.g., flexible, redundant, or space robots. Although the emulating robot is not dynamically equivalent to the target robot, the dynamical similarity can be achieved by using a control law developed herein. The effect of disturbances and actuator dynamics on the fidelity and the contact stability of the robot emulation is thoroughly analyzed. The concept of robot emulation is demonstrated by performing a number of preliminary experiments for emulation of flexible-joint robots.