Cooperative control of dual-arm robots in different human-robot collaborative tasks

Purpose This paper aims to propose cooperative control strategies for dual-arm robots in different human-robot collaborative tasks in assembly processes. The authors set three different regions where robot performs different collaborative ways: "teleoperate" region, "co-carry" region and "assembly" region. Human holds the "master" arm of dual-arm robot to operate the other "follower" arm by our proposed controller in "teleoperation" region. Limited by the human arm length, "follower" arm is teleoperated by human to carry the distant object. In the "co-carry" region, "master" arm and "follower" arm cooperatively carry the object to the region close to the human. In "assembly" region, "follower" arm is used for fixing the object and "master" arm coupled with human is used for assembly. Design/methodology/approach A human moving target estimated method is proposed for decreasing efforts for human to move "master" arm, radial basis functions neural networks are used to compensate for uncertainties in dynamics of both arms. Force feedback is designed in "master" arm controller for human to perceive the movement of "follower" arm. Experimental results on Baxter robot platform show the effectiveness of this proposed method. Findings Experimental results on Baxter robot platform show the effectiveness of our proposed methods. Different human-robot collaborative tasks in assembly processes are performed successfully under our cooperative control strategies for dual-arm robots. Originality/value In this paper, cooperative control strategies for dual-arm robots have been proposed in different human-robot collaborative tasks in assembly processes. Three different regions where robot performs different collaborative ways are set: "teleoperation" region, "co-carry" region and "assembly" region.