Torque Control for a Joint Actuated by a Brushless Motor

Position-controlled robots have been widely used in industrial area. However, po- sition control is usually based on simple kinematic models which cannot compensate for the dynamics of the robot. Thus, joint torque control based on a dynamic model are preferred for most of research robots and for robots which require higher precision in position tracking or, for instance, in high-speed movements. This is an introductory talk for my master thesis which aims at evaluating two alter- native torque control strategies for a robot joint composed of a brushless motor and harmonic drive. A torque control based on a vector control technique for the brush- less DC motor will be implemented in simulation at rst. Then, a torque to-position transformer will be added to the existing joint position control of AILA. The nal results will be implemented and tested on the real joint.