Adaptation and cooperation in control of multiple robot manipulators

We consider the dynamics and control of two or more multi-link robot manipulators cooperatively maneuvering a rigid payload. The redundantly actuated case is considered and the issue of cooperation in the design of open loop and closed loop trajectory tracking control laws is addressed. Lyapunov methods are used to establish stable tracking controllers via model inversion. Finally, a novel adaptive control procedure is utilized to establish stable trajectory tracking controls for the case of large model errors. Lyapunov methods are used throughout this paper to characterize nonlinear trajectory tracking stability characteristics. Numerical examples using a pair of cooperating two-link manipulators are used to illustrate the formulation.