POSITION FORCE CONTROL OF A MANIPULATOR MOUNTED ON A VEHICLE/

To perform complex tasks with a mobile manipulator (consisting of a ro bot arm mounted on a vehicle) moving outdoors on an uneven ground, a f irst issue is to develop robust control laws for tasks in a vehicle-em bedded frame. So, we have tested the behavior of the robot arm with cl assical control laws for several disturbances due to the motions of th e vehicle. First, we have tested positioning tasks of the end effector with respect to its base reference frame with a Cartesian PID and a C artesian Variable Structure Control-High Frequency. Then, we have test ed hybrid and external force control structures for an experiment of f ollowing a surface situated on the vehicle. Results are presented in t he form of graphs. (C) 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.