Exploiting Redundancy to Reduce Impact Force

This paper presents strategies for reducing the impact force resulting from the collision of a kinematically redundant manipulator with an object in its environment. The Premultiplier Diagram, a tool used to derive the impact force reduction strategies presented in this paper, is introduced and discussed. Two strategies for reducing impact force are then presented. The first strategy involves adding torques to the joints of the redundant manipulator to impede motion into the object with which it collides. The second strategy involves choosing the best configuration for the impact event. Simulated results from the testing of either strategy are presented and discussed.