Investigation into the Dynamics and Control of an Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator System

This study addresses the detailed modeling and simulation of the dynamic coupling between an underwater vehicle and manipulator system. The dynamic coupling effects due to damping, restoring, and inertial effects of an underwater manipulator mounted on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) are analyzed by considering the actuator and sensor characteristics. A model reference control (MRC) scheme is proposed for the underwater vehicle-manipulator system (UVMS). The effectiveness of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated using numerical simulations along with comparative study between conventional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control. The robustness of the proposed control scheme is also illustrated in the presence of external disturbances and parameter uncertainties

Behavioural Fault tolerant control of an Omni directional Mobile Robot with Four mecanum Wheels

This paper analyses the four-mecanum wheeled drive mobile robot wheels configurations that will give near desired performance with one fault and two faults for both set-point control and trajectory-tracking (circular profile) using kinematic motion control scheme within the tolerance limit. For one fault the system remains in its full actuation capabilities and gives the desired performance with the same control scheme. In case of two-fault wheels all combinations of faulty wheels have been considered using the same control scheme. Some configurations give desired performance within the tolerance limit defined while some does not even use pseudo inverse since using the system becomes under-actuated and their wheel alignment and configurations greatly influenced the performance

Performance Investigations of an Improved Backstepping Operational space Position Tracking Control of a Mobile Manipulator

This article implies an improved backstepping control technique for the operational-space position tracking of a kinematically redundant mobile manipulator. The mobile manipulator thought-out for the analysis has a vehicle base with four mecanum wheels and a serial manipulator arm with three rotary actuated joints. The recommended motion controller provides a safeguard against the system dynamic variations owing to the parameter uncertainties, unmodelled system dynamics and unknown exterior disturbances. The Lyapunov’s direct method assists in designing and authenticating the system’s closed-loop stability and tracking ability of the suggested control strategy. The feasibility, effectiveness and robustness of the recommended controller are demonstrated and investigated numerically with the help of computer based simulations. The mathematical model used for the computer-based simulations is derived based on a real-time mobile manipulator and the derived model is further verified with an inbuilt gazebo model in a robot operating system (ROS) environment. In addition, the proposed scheme is verified on an in-house fabricated mobile manipulator system. Further, the recommended controller performance is correlated with the conventional backstepping control design in both computer-based simulations and in real-time experiments

Simplified Motion Control of a Vehicle manipulator for the Coordinated Mobile Manipulation

This paper considers a resolved kinematic motion control approach for controlling a spatial serial manipulator arm that is mounted on a vehicle base. The end-effector’s motion of the manipulator is controlled by a novel kinematic control scheme, and the performance is compared with the well-known operational-space control scheme. The proposed control scheme aims to track the given operational-space (end-effector) motion trajectory with the help of resolved configuration-space motion without using the Jacobian matrix inverse or pseudo inverse. The experimental testing results show that the suggested control scheme is as close to the conventional operational-space kinematic control scheme

Inverse dynamics and trajectory tracking control of a new six degrees of freedom spatial 3-RPRS parallel manipulator

This paper presents the complete dynamic model of a new six degrees of freedom (DOF) spatial 3-RPRS parallel manipulator. The geometry parameters of the manipulator are optimized for a given constant orientation workspace. Further, a robust task-space trajectory tracking control is also designed for the manipulator along with a nonlinear disturbance observer. To demonstrate the efficacy and show the complete performance of the proposed controller, virtual prototype experiments are executed using one of the multibody dynamics software namely MSC Adams. The computer-based virtual prototype experiment results show that the manipulator tracking performance is satisfactory with the proposed control scheme. In addition, the controller parameter sensitivity and robustness analyses are also accomplished

Kinematic and Static Modelling of a New Two-Degree-of-Freedom Cable Operated Joint

This paper proposes a new two-degrees-of-freedom (dof) cable actuatedmechanism which can be utilized for lightweight variable-stiffnessmanipulators. Using numerical methods, a kinematic model for the proposedmechanism is derived for determining the mechanism’s configurationsand cable lengths for a pair of independent task-space variables. Thenumerical algorithm used for estimating the workspace is cross-validatedwith a virtual prototype of the mechanism using ONSHAPE®. The workpresented in the paper concludes with the static modelling of the mechanism,which yielded insights regarding the magnitude of the actuationforces, depending on the desired wrench-feasible workspace of the mechanism

Designing and Implementing a Versatile Agricultural Robot: A Vehicle Manipulator System for Efficient Multitasking in Farming Operations

This paper presents a detailed design of a skid-steering mobile platform with four wheels, along with a Cartesian serial (PPP) manipulator. The aim of this design is to enable the platform to perform various tasks in the agricultural process. The parallel manipulator designed can handle heavy materials in the agricultural field. An experimental robotic harvesting scenario was conducted using parallel manipulator-based end-effectors to handle heavy fruits such as watermelon or muskmelon. The conceptual and component design of the different models was carried out using the Solidworks modeling package. Design specifications and parametric values were utilized during the manufacturing stage. The mobile manipulator was simulated on undulating terrain profiles using ADAMS software. The simulation was analyzed for a duration of 15 s, and graphs depicting the distance, velocity, and acceleration were evaluated over time. Proportional derivative control and proportional derivative-like conventional sliding surface control were applied to the model, and the results were analyzed to assess the error in relation to the input and desired variables. Additionally, a structural analysis was performed to ensure minimal deformation and the highest safety factor for the wheel shaft and L bracket thickness. Throughout the fabrication and prototype development, calibration tests were conducted at various X-, Y-, and Z-axis frame mounting stages. The objective was to minimize the lateral and longitudinal deviation between the parallel linear motion (LM) rails. Once the fabrication and prototype construction was completed, field testing was carried out. All mechanical movements in the lateral and longitudinal directions functioned according to the desired commands given by the Arduino Mega, controlled via a six-channel radio frequency (RF) controller. In the context of agriculture, the grippers utilizing parallel mechanisms were also subjected to testing, demonstrating their ability to handle sizable cylindrical and spherical fruits or vegetables, as well as other relevant objects