Manipulator for man-robot cooperation (control method for manipulator/vehicle system with fuzzy inference)

The authors propose a control method for a manipulator/vehicle system for robot cooperation. Generally, the manipulator/vehicle system has redundant degrees of freedom. To control the manipulator/vehicle system, the motion of the end effector in the inertial coordinate system has to be decomposed into the vehicle motion and the manipulator motion. The motion of the end effector with respect to the inertial coordinate system is realized by both the manipulator motion and the vehicle motion. The decomposition of the end effector motion is one of the key issues for the manipulator/vehicle system. To move the system to another location, the motion of the end effector should be realized by the vehicle motion. To manipulate an object, the motion of the end effector should be implemented by the manipulator motion. The decomposition of the end effector motion in the inertial coordinate system should be done based on the human intention. Fuzzy inference is used to model the human intention. The experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control method for the manipulator/vehicle system for human-robot cooperation.<<ETX>>