Mix Frame Visual Servo Control Framework for Autonomous Assistive Robotic Arms

Assistive robotic arms (ARAs) that provide care to the elderly and people with disabilities, are a significant part of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). Presently available ARAs provide non-intuitive interfaces such as joysticks for control and thus, lacks the autonomy to perform daily activities. This study proposes that, for inducing autonomous behavior in ARAs, visual sensors integration is vital, and visual servoing in the direct Cartesian control mode is the preferred method. Generally, ARAs are designed in a configuration where its end-effector’s position is defined in the fixed base frame while orientation is expressed in the end-effector frame. We denoted this configuration as ‘mixed frame robotic arms’. Consequently, conventional visual servo controllers which operate in a single frame of reference are incompatible with mixed frame ARAs. Therefore, we propose a mixed-frame visual servo control framework for ARAs. Moreover, we enlightened the task space kinematics of a mixed frame ARAs, which led us to the development of a novel “mixed frame Jacobian matrix”. The proposed framework was validated on a mixed frame JACO-2 7 DoF ARA using an adaptive proportional derivative controller for achieving image-based visual servoing (IBVS), which showed a significant increase of 31% in the convergence rate, outperforming conventional IBVS joint controllers, especially in the outstretched arm positions and near the base frame. Our Results determine the need for the mixed frame controller for deploying visual servo control on modern ARAs, that can inherently cater to the robotic arm’s joint limits, singularities, and self-collision problems.