Impact sound control by learning control

Impact sound is emitted when a collision occurs between objects. In this paper, we propose a robotic control method to reproduce the impact sound emitted by the collision between the endpoint of the robotic manipulator and the object. The feedback control of impact sound is very difficult, because the impact phenomenon occurs in a very short period of time. Instead of a feedback control method, a learning control algorithm is proposed to control the impact phenomena. The learning control algorithm modifies the reference signal to the servo controller of the robot manipulator so that the desired impact sound is reproduced. The algorithm is based on the optimization of the least-squares criterion of learning error and does not require the dynamic model of the impact phenomena. The algorithm is applied to the planar manipulator with one degree of freedom driven by a pneumatic actuator. Experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.