Tapping motion control of dynamic impulse-momentum contact to human body for robotic therapeutical percussive massage

In this paper, we implement robotic tapping motion with an anthropomorphic dual arm robot. It is the first paper to discuss the robotic massage technique for this kind. Unlike common massage motion such as kneading, pressing, or stroking, tapping motion satisfies with the short-time impulse momentum contact on a human body. To implement the robotic tapping motion, we develop a modulated on-line trajectory generator (OTG) algorithm based on the impedance control and collision detection so that we can ensure the safety during therapeutical massage and reduce the contact time during each tapping motion. Furthermore, to satisfy various demands of tapping force, the concept of a virtual point is developed. By the Cartesian based impedance control and the impulse-momentum contact dynamics, the feasibility of the percussive massage therapy based on robotic tapping motion is verified by the experiments. The experimental result demonstrates that most of the robotic tapping motion has high similarity to the tapping motion of a massage therapist in different needed force.