Set point trajectory and internal force control in redundant dual-arm manipulation

A nonlinear decoupling and linearizing feedback control is considered for dynamic coordination of two planar robot arms manipulating an object. A general inverse dynamics-based method is presented that assures an exact feedback linearization for simultaneous control of the object trajectory on the plane and internal efforts transmitted from the robot end-effectors to the object. The method takes the manipulator dynamics and object dynamics into consideration. A method for parameterizing the grip matrix null space is proposed, which has formed a basis for developing a new method for calculating the internal efforts. The procedure is invariant with respect to the change of the torque origin and units of length, and provides the force distribution without internal squeezing effects. A comparison between the approaches known so far and the new method is presented. No previously published method assures noninvariance and nonsqueezing properties for all possible contact configurations. Control algorithms are developed for a system of robotic arms that has more degrees of freedom than necessary for given tasks, exhibiting both actuation and kinematic redundancy. The implementation of this method is demonstrated for the case of a system of two planar three-link arms with the end-effectors manipulating an object, with different constrained task configurations. Practical aspects of discrete-time inverse dynamics control, such as influence of the computational time delay and robustness to model imperfections, are discussed. It is demonstrated that it is possible to achieve high-precision tracking of object position and internal force profiles, even if a system imperfect model is used for controller design. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.