Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A Framework for Stable Robot-Environment Interaction Based on the Generalized Scattering Transformation

Kanstantsin Pachkouski, The University of Western Ontario

Abstract

This thesis deals with development and experimental evaluation of control algorithms for stabilization of robot-environment interaction based on the conic systems formalism and scattering transformation techniques. A framework for stable robot-environment interaction is presented and evaluated on a real physical system. The proposed algorithm fundamentally generalizes the conventional passivity-based approaches to the coupled stability problem. In particular, it allows for stabilization of not necessarily passive robot-environment interaction. The framework is based on the recently developed non-planar conic systems formalism and generalized scattering-based stabilization methods. A comprehensive theoretical background on the scattering transformation techniques, planar and non-planar conic systems is presented. The dynamics of the robot are estimated using data-driven techniques, which allows the equations for the dynamics of a robot to be obtained in an explicit form. The generalized scattering transformation is used in combination with the Lyapunov-based adaptive trajectory tracking control. It is shown that the original interconnected system is not stable due to its non-passive nature; however, the application of the proposed stabilization algorithm allows stability to be achieved, without affecting the robot’s trajectory tracking performance in free space.