Transparent, High-Force, and High-Stiffness Control of Haptic Actuators with Backlash

Haptic actuators employing speed reductions display desirable increased force capability but have difficulty producing feelings of free space motion due to friction and inertia magnification implicit to actuator dynamics. This work describes a control topology that enables geared haptic actuators to produce highly transparent free space motion when combined with backlash nonlinearities. While the presence of backlash enables the proposed free space motion control, it is also a source of instability, limit cycles, and to some extent rendering distortion. We introduce a smoothed gain scheduling function to mitigate limit cycling and expand the range of stable impedances that can be rendered. The introduction of a design metric called the free space envelope provides a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of the free space controller. Together these two control approaches enable transparent free space, high-force, and stable haptic interactions in systems with backlash, a characteristic common in many speed reducers.