Force tracking impedance control with unknown environment at the microscale

A new method to estimate the environment parameters is proposed in order to perform force tracking in impedance control despite the presence of an unknown environment. In impedance force tracking, the location of the environment relative to the robot and the stiffness of the environment should be known. The proposed method estimates the environment location and stiffness using only force and position measurements. The study is done for microscale taking into consideration microscale specificities, especially pull-off force. The impedance control formulation is tested experimentally in a contact transition scenario consisting of a compliant microforce sensor mounted on a microrobotic positioner, and three compliant microstructures with different stiffness. A traditional double mass-spring-damper model of the overall robot is employed to develop the closed-loop impedance control.