Reactive behaviours of mobile manipulators based on the DVZ approach

This paper addresses the problem of reactive behaviours of mobile manipulators evolving in dynamic and unknown environments. The deformable virtual zone (DVZ) method is proposed to resolve the problem through the reflex action theory. The formulation of the DVZ principle is given and the extension to mobile manipulators is detailed. This approach allows to implement fast control laws and can be seen as an efficient low level algorithm for controlling motions to avoid unscheduled obstacles collisions. Simulation results are discussed, showing the effectiveness of the proposed method.