Robust jump impact controller for manipulators

This paper presents a novel impact controller which is robust to the uncertainties in environment dynamics and location of the collision surface. By modeling the impact dynamics as a state dependent jump linear system and applying a modified version of the stochastic maximum principle of a state dependent jump linear system, the controller thus obtained optimizes, in the mean square sense, the approach velocity, the force transient during impact and the steady state force error after contact is established. Compared with impedance controllers via simulation whose data is obtained from experimental data the results indicate that not only is the performance of the jump impact controller superior in terms of overshoot and steady state error its robustness is quite remarkable too.