Maximum Allowable Dynamic Load of Mobile Manipulators with Stability Consideration

High payload to mass ratio is one of the advantages of mobile robot manipulators. In this paper, a general formula for finding the maximum allowable dynamic load (MADL) of wheeled mobile robot is presented. Mobile manipulators operating in field environments will be required to manipulate large loads, and to perform such tasks on uneven terrain, which may cause the system to reach dangerous tip-over instability. Therefore, the method is expanded for finding the MADL of mobile manipulators with stability consideration. Moment-Height Stability (MHS) criterion is used as an index for the system stability. Full dynamic model of wheeled mobile base and mounted manipulator is considered with respect to the dynamic of non-holonomic constraint. Then, a method for determination of the maximum allowable loads is described, subject to actuator constraints and by imposing the stability limitation as a new constraint. The actuator torque constraint is applied by using a speed-torque characteristics curve of a typical DC motor. In order to verify the effectiveness of the presented algorithm, several simulation studies considering a two-link planar manipulator, mounted on a mobile base are presented and the results are discussed.

Maximum load determination of nonholonomic mobile manipulator using hierarchical optimal control

SUMMARYThis paper presents a new method using hierarchical optimal control for path planning and calculating maximum allowable dynamic load (MADL) of wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM). This method is useful for high degrees of freedom WMMs. First, the overall system is decoupled to a set of subsystems, and then, hierarchical optimal control is applied on them. The presented algorithm is a two-level hierarchical algorithm. In the first level, interaction terms between subsystems are fixed, and in the second level, the optimization problem for subsystems is solved. The results of second level are used for calculating new estimations of interaction variables in the first level. For calculating MADL, the load on the end effector is increased until actuators get into saturation. Given a large-scale robot, we show how the presenting in distributed hierarchy in optimal control helps to find MADL fast. Also, it enables us to treat with complicated cost functions that are generated by obstacle avoidance terms. The effectiveness of this approach on simulation case studies for different types of WMMs as well as an experiment for a mobile manipulator called Scout is shown.