Adaptive cooperative manipulation with intermittent contact

Cooperative manipulation with multiple, independent agents can be complicated by changing dynamics as the agents come in and out of contact with the object they are manipulating. This effect, combined with uncertainty in the environment, leads to nontrivial issues in terms of guaranteeing convergence and task completion. Here we illustrate how these effects can be mitigated using a decentralized adaptive control technique based on hybrid control. Results are verified in an experiment using three agents.