Synchronized Motion Control of Dual Robot Manipulator Systems

Abstract

Dual manipulator systems are capable of accomplishing a variety of tasks, such as manipulating large and heavy objects and assembling parts, that might be impossible for single manipulators. These collaborative tasks require dual manipulators to be driven by a controller that can coordinate and synchronize the motions of the individual manipulators. Furthermore, many domestic and industrial applications involve the manipulation of objects with unknown properties. For instance, a cooking robot would have to deal with many ingredients of di erent sizes and weights. In this thesis, an adaptive synchronous controller for dual manipulator systems, that is capable of motion synchronization while manipulating objects of unknown properties, is presented. This controller only utilizes position information, hence does not require extra instrumentation, such as force sensors, often not found in industrial manipulators. The performance of the controller is validated through simulations which showed that the inclusion of motion synchronization errors in controller design is critical in accomplishing collaborative tasks. The real-life implementation details are also discussed.