Motion Control
Compliant joints that feel the push-back.
Torque-controlled actuation at every joint in the kinematic chain. Not position control that stops when it stalls — load-aware control that reads the actual force being applied and adjusts the compliance envelope continuously, at 1 kHz, without waiting for a collision event to trigger a stop.
How it works
Torque-aware control loops at every joint
Every joint in Atom's kinematic chain contains an embedded torque sensor reporting actual load to the control computer at 1 kHz. The control architecture uses this measurement to separate expected load (the weight of a part being carried, the inertia of the arm moving) from unexpected contact force (a human hand, an obstacle, a stray fixture).
When unexpected contact force exceeds the configured threshold, the affected joints immediately enter compliance mode — they yield in the direction of contact rather than resist it. The response path is hardware-only: no network round-trip, no software layer between the sensor reading and the joint response. Contact-to-compliance latency is under 2 ms.
Gait stability
Whole-body impedance control on live factory floors
Factory floors are vibrating surfaces. Conveyors transmit oscillation through the structure. Pallet drops send shockwaves across the floor. Forklifts passing at 2 m/s create pressure transients that reach the robot's feet before the camera sees the vehicle. Atom's whole-body impedance controller runs a continuous ZMP-based balance computation, adjusting stance in real time to compensate for all of these without suspending the arm task in progress.
The balance controller and manipulation planner share the same joint torque budget but operate on separate computation threads — a heavy carry automatically shifts the ZMP target forward, and the legs compensate, without the manipulation planner needing to know. This decoupling is what allows simultaneous stable walking and arm manipulation, not just standing manipulation.