Cooperative multiple mobile manipulators transporting a common payload: an integrated approach

Resumen

In this work we present a study concerning the modeling and control of two cooperative mobile manipulators for transport and manipulation of payloads. The advantages of such system can be summarized by the general system capacities in terms of size, weight and shape of payload to be transported, intricate moves and maneuvers and a wide range of applications. The study has an emphasis in the motion modeling and control of the system. The system is nonlinear and cannot be controlled by traditional linear control techniques. The motion is divided in the transport phase and the manipulation phase. In the transport phase, two mobile platforms carry the payload in a trajectory controlling the driving wheels in a formation control and in th e manipulation phase, two manipulators carries the payload in a trajectory controlling the revolute joints. The control strategy pro- posed for the transport phase is the leader-follower with SDRE (State-Dependent Riccati Equation) method applied on formation control and the control strategies proposed for the manipulation phase are the SDRE method and the Variable Structure with Sliding Mode method. Simulation results with the software Matlab show the efficiency of the control strategies.