Coordinated motion control of multiple mobile manipulators handling a single object without using force/torque sensors

In this paper, we propose a coordinated motion control algorithm of multiple mobile manipulators handling a single object without using force/torque sensors. In this control algorithm, each mobile manipulator is controlled as if its grasping point has an impedance dynamics by using the real dynamics of the manipulator instead of force/torque sensors. These mobile manipulators handle a single object in coordination using the leader-follower type control algorithm based on the impedance dynamics. Then, the effect of parameter identification errors is discussed and a method to reduce it is proposed. The proposed control algorithm is experimentally applied to two mobile manipulators, and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed control algorithm.