Vision/Force Based Robot Manipulator Servo Control For Uncertain Plane Surface Tracking

In order to improve the flexibility and applying domain of robot manipulator, a method for uncertain plane surface tracing based on vision and force sensing is proposed. A standby stereo vision system is employed to estimate the normal direction of the plane surface and to control the end-effector's motions which are parallel to the plane surface. A force sensor is used to acquire the contact force information between the end-effector and the environment and to control the end-effector's motion component which is vertical to the plane surface. This approach is validated by simulation with the robot toolbox for MATLAB. It is shown that the method is effective.