Development of a PC-based robot hand control algorithm

A force-position control algorithm is used with a two-degree-of-freedom robot hand to simultaneously control the position of an object and the applied grasping force. This original implementation of this control algorithm was limited to a 60-Hz sampling rate. A direct conversion of the original implementation of the algorithm to the C language provided a small speed increase. Detailed profiling tests of functional blocks indicated that the exclusive use of integer calculations, avoidance of integer division, and the use of look-up tables provided the most efficient operation. The final C version of the algorithm resulted in sampling rates of 400/500 Hz (with/without data storage for postprocessing). A special version of the program increased the sampling rates to 625/770 Hz (with/without data storage).