Strategies for Moment Compensation in Supernumerary Robotic Limbs Manipulation Tasks

When designing the motions of wearable robotic systems, physical Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI) is a crucial consideration. This study suggests a coordinated motion planner for Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) to minimize the applied moment from the robotic system’s operation to the human body. Given task motion trajectories, moment compensation motions are generated to reduce the asymmetric moment elements while maintaining the other element below a nominal value. The performance of the motion planner is evaluated by the simulation and the hardware experiment. An object pick-and-place scenario is used as a goal task. The simulation results demonstrate that under different conditions, the compensation motions significantly decrease the generated roll and yaw moments when compared to the results without the motions. The hardware experiment validates its practicality as a real-time motion controller of a physical robotic system.