Overview
Robot tasks are described by where the gripper should go, but an arm is driven one joint at a time. Task-space control bridges that gap by working out the joint motions that move the gripper where you want it.
[03] Project
Robotic Arm Task Space Controller
DrakeROS 2URDFPython
Task-space and joint-space control for a simulated robot arm in Drake. It turns a desired motion of the gripper into coordinated commands for every joint.
- Role
- Robotics Engineering Intern, RADL
- Year
- 2025
- Framework
- Drake
- Control
- Task and joint space
- Outcome
- Sim-to-real deployment
- Gripper target
- Jacobian
- Joint commands
- Arm
How it works
The controller uses the arm's Jacobian, which relates joint speeds to gripper motion, and solves it for the joint commands each step. Joint-space control handles big moves between poses, where only the final pose matters.
Result
Both controllers ran in a ROS 2 and Drake simulation stack with hydroelastic contact, and the work carried over to the real robot as part of the lab's sim-to-real workflow.