New Trends in Contact Tasks

Abstract

In principle, one can distinguish two basic subclasses of contact tasks. One subclass essentially covers force tasks, whose very nature requires an end-effector to establish physical contact with the environment and exert a process-specific force. In general, these tasks require both the position of the end-effector and the interaction force to be controlled simultaneously. A typical example of such tasks is machining processes such as grinding, deburring, polishing, bending, etc. In these tasks, force is an inherent part of the process and plays a decisive role in its execution (e.g., metal cutting or plastic deformation). In order to prevent overloading or damaging of the tool during the operation, force must be controlled in accordance with some definite task requirements.