Development of a Control Strategy for Cooperative Manipulators Using a Modular Simulation Package

The aim of this paper is to investigate the performance of a control strategy for cooperative manipulators holding an object. The cooperation problem is solved by adopting a symmetric object task space description. An impedance behavior is assigned to controlled variables, resulting in a computationally simple control that does not require force sensor measurements. Simulation of the whole controlled system is performed using the LEGO modular simulation package which permits modeling the system as an interconnection of subsystems described by simple equations. Results of two typical case studies are presented.