Coordinated cooperative control of mobile manipulators

This paper presents a multi-layer scheme for coordinated cooperative control of mobile manipulators, for transporting a common object. Each layer works as an independent module, dealing with a specific part of the problem of coordination and cooperation, thus giving more flexibility to the system. A methodology to avoid obstacles in the trajectory of any mobile manipulator is designed based on the concept of mechanical impedance of the interaction robots-environment, without deforming the virtual structure and maintaining its desired trajectory. Stability is proved by using Lyapunov´s method. Simulation results show a good performance of the proposed controller as proved by the theoretical design.