An explicit force control scheme for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

An explicit force control scheme for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems is presented. Several major problems of underwater robotics are taken into account; namely, uncertainty in the model knowledge, presence of hydrodynamic effects, kinematic redundancy of the system, and poor performance of the vehicle´s actuating system. The possible occurrence of loss of contact due to vehicle movement during the task is also discussed. Extensive dynamic simulations prove the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm