Collision detection of manipulator based on adaptive control law

In this paper, we propose a collision detection method of a manipulator based on the nonlinear adaptive control law proposed by Slotine and Li (1988). The collision of a manipulator with its environment is detected by the difference between the actual input torques to the manipulator and the reference input torques calculated based on the manipulator dynamics. An adaptive control scheme is employed for the manipulator control and the parameter estimation of the manipulator. The reference input torques are calculated using the estimated manipulator parameters. The proposed collision detection scheme is applied to an industrial manipulator and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed scheme.