Optimal configurations for stiffness and compliance in human & robot arms

Abstract

Research in neurophysiology has shown that humans are able to adapt the mechanical stiffness at the hand in order to resist disturbances. This has served as inspiration for optimising stiffness in robot arms during manipulation tasks. Endpoint stiffness is modelled in Cartesian space, as though the hand were in independent rigid body. But an arm is a series of rigid bodies connected by articulated joints. The contribution of the joints and arm configuration to the endpoint stiffness has not yet been quantified. In this paper we use mathematical optimisation to find conditions for maximum stiffness and compliance with respect to an externally applied force. By doing so, we can retroactively explain observations made about humans using these mathematically optimal conditions. We then show how this optimisation can be applied to robotic task planning and control. Experiments on a humanoid robot show similar arm posture to that observed in humans. This suggests there is an underlying physical principle by which humans optimise stiffness. We can use this to derive natural control methods for robots.