Fuzzy controller for cooperative object pushing with variable line contact

Designing an appropriate cooperation protocol in multi-robot systems such as multi-robot object manipulation systems is a challenging task. In this paper designing and implementing a cooperation protocol between two robots pushing an object toward an arbitrary goal configuration is investigated. The proposed method benefits from task decoupling which simplifies the cooperation protocol design. Each robot gets its proper action from a particular fuzzy inference system independently. The fuzzy controllers outputs are low-level robot commands by which the need to a robot path planning algorithm is eliminated. Simulation results show that robots could push the object to the goal configuration cooperatively. Experiments have been conducted to approve the proposed system.