Independent force and position control for cooperating manipulators

Abstract The problem of independent force and position control of multitask cooperating manipulators is studied. Each manipulator is in a non-singular configuration and the object can be driven by the contact forces exerted by the end effectors of the manipulators. The design requirement is to control each coordinate of the position of the object as well as each component of the “rest” forces, except the moving forces that are determined uniquely from the object's position. The present design requirement has been proved to be always satisfied together with asymptotic and BIBO stability. A class of controllers solving the above simultaneous problem is analytically determined. The proposed state feedback controller does not depend upon the specific object dynamics and thus the resulting closed-loop multimanipulator system performs as required, not only when handling various objects but also when the dynamics of the objects are unknown or hard to compute or disturbed by external forces.