Enhancing Robustness in Manipulability Assessment: The Pseudo-Ellipsoid Approach

Manipulability analysis is a methodology employed to assess the capacity of an articulated system, at a specific configuration, to produce motion or exert force in diverse directions. The conventional method entails generating a virtual ellipsoid using the system’s configuration and model. Yet, this approach poses challenges when applied to systems such as the human body, where direct access to such information is limited, necessitating reliance on estimations. Any inaccuracies in these estimations can distort the ellipsoid’s configuration, potentially compromising the accuracy of the manipulability assessment. To address this issue, this article extends the standard approach by introducing the concept of the manipulability pseudo-ellipsoid. Through a series of theoretical analyses, simulations, and experiments, the article demonstrates that the proposed method exhibits reduced sensitivity to noise in sensory information, consequently enhancing the robustness of the approach.