Real-Time External Contact Force Estimation and Localization for Collaborative Robot

In order to improve safety and collaboration capabilities of industrial robots in contact task, fast and reliable contact force localization and estimation should be used. For this purpose, a real-time algorithm based on a two-step optimization procedure is proposed. In the first stage, an approximate position of the contact point is estimated, in the second stage local SQP based optimization is performed in order to specify exact contact location and acting external forces. The algorithm is capable to run with 100 Hz loop and ensures 2 cm RMSE for contact point localization in the last 3 links with noise in a torque sensing. The developed approach was tested in the simulation with KUKA iiwa and can be extended to any robot with torque sensors.