Impedance based combination of visual and force control

We propose a simple and efficient control algorithm that combines visual servo control and force feedback within the impedance control approach. The control scheme involves, at the low level, a position based impedance controller with an external force sensor feedback loop. The reference trajectory fed to this impedance controller is generated online by a vision based control loop. In spite of its simplicity, this approach provides satisfactory experimental behavior. Peg in hole insertion experiments involving large initial errors, are performed using a 7 axis robot manipulator without any computation of the peg trajectory.