Manipulability of cooperating robots with passive joints

Abstract

We study the differential kinematics and the kineto-static manipulability indices of multiple cooperating robot arms, including active and passive joints. The kinetic manipulability indices are derived as a simple extension of previous results on cooperating robots without passive joints. The force manipulability analysis for cooperative robot systems can not be derived by "duality" arguments as it can with conventional arms, rather a distinction between active and passive force manipulability is necessary. Results in the paper apply directly to the analysis of simply closed kinematic chains, and can be extended to multiply closed kinematic chains.