Coordinated Transportation of an Object by Multiple Mobile Robots without Using Force/Torque Sensors.

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a decentralized control algorithm of multiple mobile robots transporting an object in coordination without using force/torque sensors. In this algorithm, each robot is controlled as if it has a specified impedance dynamics, using the identified parameters of each robot, without using a force/torque sensor. These robots transport a object in coordination using a leader follower type control algorithm. We also consider the effect of parameter identification errors and propose a method to reduce the effect of them. The proposed control algorithm is experimentally applied to two mobile robots, and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed control algorithm.