Coordinated motion planning for a mobile manipulator considering stabilityand manipulation

For a mobile manipulator to be used in areas such as offices and houses, it is desirable that the mobile platform be small sized In the case of a smal l-sized platform, the mobile manipulator may tip over when moving at high s peed or executing task in the presence of disturbances. Therefore, it is ne cessary to simultaneously consider both stabilization and manipulation whil e coordinating vehicle motion and manipulator motion. In this paper we firs t present the concept of the valid stable region to evaluate stability in t he presence of disturbances. Next, we propose a method for coordinating veh icle motion planning including manipulator configuration, and manipulator m otion planning including platform stability. Then, the optimal problem of v ehicle motion is formulated, taking into account vehicle dynamics, manipula tor workspace, and system stability. Also, the manipulator motion is derive d, considering stability compensation and manipulator configuration. Finall y, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulation e xamples.