Adaptive variable impedance force/position hybrid control for large surface polishing

Purpose This paper aims to propose a hybrid force/position controller based on the adaptive variable impedance. Design/methodology/approach First, the working space is divided into a force control subspace and a position subspace, the force control subspace adopts the position impedance control strategy. At the same time, the contact force model between the robot and the surface is analyzed in this space. Second, based on the traditional position impedance, the model reference adaptive control is introduced to provide an accurate reference position for the impedance controller. Then, the BP neural network is used to adjust the impedance parameters online. Findings The experimental results show that compared with the traditional PI control method, the proposed method has a higher flexibility, the dynamic response accommodation time is reduced by 7.688 s and the steady-state error is reduced by 30.531%. The overshoot of the contact force between the end of robot and the workpiece is reduced by 34.325% comparing with the fixed impedance control method. Practical implications The proposed control method compares with a hybrid force/position based on PI control method and a position fixed impedance control method by simulation and experiment. Originality/value The adaptive variable impedance control method improves accuracy of force tracking and solves the problem of the large surfaces with robot grinding often over-polished at the protrusion and under-polished at the concave.