Enhanced stiffness modeling, identification and characterization for robot manipulators

This paper presents the enhanced stiffness modeling and analysis of robot manipulators, and a methodology for their stiffness identification and characterization. Assuming that the manipulator links are infinitely stiff, the enhanced stiffness model contains: 1) the passive and active stiffness of the joints and 2) the active stiffness created by the change in the manipulator configuration, and by external force vector acting upon the manipulator end point. The stiffness formulation not accounting for the latter is known as conventional stiffness formulation, which is obviously not complete and is valid only when: 1) the manipulator is in an unloaded quasistatic configuration and 2) the manipulator Jacobian matrix is constant throughout the workspace. The experimental system considered in this study is a Motoman SK 120 robot manipulator with a closed-chain mechanism. While the deflection of the manipulator end point under a range of external forces is provided by a high precision laser measurement system, a wrist force/torque sensor measures the external forces. Based on the experimental data and the enhanced stiffness model, the joint stiffness values are first identified. These stiffness values are then used to prove that conventional stiffness modeling is incomplete. Finally, they are employed to characterize stiffness properties of the robot manipulator. It has been found that although the component of the stiffness matrix differentiating the enhanced stiffness model from the conventional one is not always positive definite, the resulting stiffness matrix can still be positive definite. This follows that stability of the stiffness matrix is not influenced by this stiffness component. This study contributes to the previously reported work from the point of view of using the enhanced stiffness model for stiffness identification, verification and characterization, and of new experimental results proving that the conventional stiffness matrix is not complete and is valid under certain assumptions.