System and method for robotic assembly based on adaptive compliance

A robot, comprising:

• a robotic arm including an end-tool having a motion with multiple degrees of freedom, wherein, during an operation of the robot, a force sensor is arranged to produce measurements indicative of force experienced by the end-tool of the robotic arm during the operation;
• a plurality of motors configured to change a motion of the robotic arm according to a command produced according to a control law;
• at least one processor;
• and memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the processor, upon receiving data indicative of an original trajectory for the motion of the robotic arm transitioning a pose of the end-tool from a start pose to a goal pose to perform an assembly operation, to:
• determine the control law for controlling the plurality of motors to move the robotic arm according to the original trajectory;
• execute a self-exploration program that explores a space of the original trajectory by controlling the plurality of motors according to the control law while introducing different displacements from the original trajectory into a state of the robotic arm and registering, upon detecting the force experienced by the end-tool of the robotic arm, a pair of a measurement of a force sensor and a corresponding value of a displacement from the original trajectory to produce training data indicative of the space of the original trajectory;
• learn, using the training data, a non-linear compliant control law including a non-linear mapping that maps the measurements of the force sensor to a direction of corrections to the original trajectory defining the control law;
• wherein the instructions executed by the at least one processor, further cause the processor, upon receiving an end-pose modification of the original trajectory including at least one or combination of a new start pose of the end-tool of the robotic arm and a new goal pose of the end-tool measured with an accuracy less than an accuracy of the assembly operation, to:
• transform the original trajectory according to the end-pose modification to produce a transformed trajectory;
• update the control law according to the transformed trajectory to produce an updated control law;
• and
• command the plurality of motors to control the robotic arm according to the updated control law corrected with the non-linear compliant control law learned for the original trajectory.