A method of sensorless collision detection based on motor current for robot manipulator

In recent years, the collaborative robots have been widely used in vast fields, like aerospace, industrial, medical and household. Therefore, in robot collision detection, it is more and more important to ensure the safety of robot system. Compared with the traditional methods of installing sensors, a collision detection algorithm based on neural network (NN) is proposed. The current of the joint is estimated by neural network, and the threshold value is set to judge the occurrence of collision. This algorithm does not need to use the dynamic model of the robot, nor the acceleration. Moreover, the algorithm can be easily applied to existing systems without changing the structure of robots, which reduces the production cost. And a prototype with one degree of freedom (DOF) has been built to verify the validity of the algorithm.