DYNAMICS AND CONTROL OF MULTIPLE COOPERATING MANIPULATORS WITH ROLLING CONTACTS

In this article, we investigate the control of multiple cooperating me chanisms manipulating a common object, with rolling contact between th e end-effecters and the object. We derive new kinematic and dynamic fo rmulations for the system, in which the rolling degrees of freedom bet ween the end-effector and the object are modeled as one or more unactu ated joints of the manipulator. Differential geometric concepts are us ed to interpret the curvature and torsion forms used in contact kinema tic equations derived by Montana. The augmentation of the rolling cont acts imparts each manipulator with additional degrees of freedom and c ould also make it kinematically redundant. This can be exploited for t he satisfaction of a secondary subtask criterion such as collision avo idance, which is demonstrated in the examples. In addition, a control law can be specified that enables simultaneous control of the object t rajectory, the internal forces in the object, and the trajectories of the contact points on the object or the end-effectors. (C) 1996 John W iley & Sons, Inc.