A kinematic analysis of locomotive cooperation for two mobile robots along a general wavy road

Abstract

This paper deals with a kinematic analysis of locomotive cooperation necessary for two mobile robots to carry a long bar along a general wavy road. The robots are assumed to be driven by a crawler mechanism and to have a single link arm which moves in a prismatic way. The robots have a task to carry a long bar keeping its height and length constant and its posture horizontal. The analysis of kinematic conditions done for a sinusoidal wavy road is expanded for a general wavy road and the authors find that there exist two kinds of cooperation mode: one is to change the direction of locomotion and the other is to alternate the robot role from "master" to "servant" and vis-vasa.