Method and system for controlling a robot manipulator for operating in a shared workspace with human(s)

A method of controlling a robot manipulator for operating in a shared workspace with one or more humans using at least one processor, the method comprising:

• obtaining robot state information indicating a current state of the robot manipulator, human state information indicating a current state of the one or more humans, desired trajectory information for a task indicating a current desired trajectory of a component of the robot manipulator to perform the task and degree of freedom classification information for the task indicating a constraint type in trajectory tracking for each of a plurality of degrees of freedom of the component for the task;
• determining a safety control set comprising a set of candidate control inputs with respect to a safety condition between one or more selected parts of the robot manipulator and one or more selected parts of the one or more humans using a safety control function based on the robot state information and the human state information;
• determining a hard constraint control set comprising a set of candidate control inputs with respect to one or more hard constraints in trajectory tracking respectively in one or more degrees of freedom of the plurality of degrees of freedom of the component for the task using a hard constraint function based on the robot state information, the desired trajectory information of the component for the task and the degree of freedom classification information for the task;
• determining a soft constraint control set comprising a set of candidate control inputs with respect to one or more soft constraints in trajectory tracking respectively in one or more degrees of freedom of the plurality of degrees of freedom of the component for the task using a soft constraint function based on the robot state information, the desired trajectory information of the component for the task and the degree of freedom classification information for the task;
• and
• performing control input optimization based on the safety control set, the hard constraint control set and the soft constraint control set to determine a control input for controlling the robot manipulator,
• wherein the safety control function is dependent on the current state of the robot manipulator and the current state of the one or more humans and is configured to determine the safety control set:
• based on a control model for the robot manipulator that is dependent on the current state of the robot manipulator, the control input to the robot manipulator and a disturbance input to the robot manipulator, and is configured in a control affine form based on a control mode of the robot manipulator, and
• for each part pair of one or more part pairs of a selected part of the one or more selected parts of the robot manipulator and a selected part of the one or more selected parts of the one or more humans:
• based on a safety distance function associated with the part pair that is dependent on the current state of the robot manipulator and the current state of the one or more humans and corresponds to a control barrier function, and
• based on a sliding manifold associated with the part pair configured based on the safety distance function associated with the part pair and a relative degree of the safety distance function with respect to the control input to the robot manipulator.