D.J. Braun, F. Petit, F. Huber, S. Haddadin, P. Smagt, A. Albu-Schaffer, and S. Vijayakumar, Optimal torque and stiffness control in compliantly actuated robots, IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Algarve, PT, pp. 2801–2808, October 2012.
This paper presents a control framework for robots with variable-impedance actuators that optimizes both torque and stiffness profiles simultaneously. The method accounts for hardware complexity and real-world actuation constraints, enabling robots to exploit the benefits of compliance while maintaining task performance. Both simulations and hardware experiments validate the approach, showing that optimal temporal impedance modulation improves efficiency and adaptability in dynamic tasks.
Why it matters: Compliantly actuated robots have the potential for human-like agility, but their control is challenging due to redundancy and nonlinearity. This work demonstrates how simultaneous optimization of torque and stiffness can unlock those advantages, advancing the design of robots capable of efficient, versatile, and safe interaction.