Distributed formation control for manipulator end-effectors

We present three classes of distributed formation controllers for achieving and maintaining the 2D/3D formation shape of manipulator end-effectors to cope with different scenarios due to availability of modeling parameters. We firstly present a distributed formation controller for manipulators whose system parameters are perfectly known. The formation control objective is achieved by assigning virtual springs between end-effectors and by adding damping terms at joints, which provides a clear physical interpretation of the proposed solution. Subsequently, we extend it to the case where manipulator kinematic and system parameters are not exactly known. An extra integrator and an adaptive estimator are introduced for gravitational compensation and stabilization, respectively. Simulation results with planar manipulators and with seven degree-of-freedom humanoid manipulator arms are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Distributed formation control of manipulators' end-effector with internal model-based disturbance rejection

This paper addresses the problem of end-effector formation control for manipulators that are subjected to external disturbances: input disturbance torques and disturbance forces at each end-effector. The disturbances are assumed to be non-vanishing and are superposition of finite number of sinusoidal and step signals. The formation control objective is achieved by assigning virtual springs between end-effectors, by adding damping terms at joints, and by incorporating internal model-based dynamic compensators to counteract the effect of the disturbances; all of which presents a clear physical interpretation of the proposed approach. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.