Analysis of a robot system with a passive damper for force and impact control

This paper deals with modeling and implementation of a robot system for force/impact control using a newly developed passive hardware damper. Modeling procedures of the whole system are addressed including the passive damper and stability of the system with respect to force feedback gain is analyzed. The limitations of conventional velocity feedback to produce damping characteristics are discussed. Experiments are performed with/without the passive damper to verify the effectiveness of the passive damping method and it is shown that the passive damper can help the system make stable contact during the contact period.