Tool-point control of a planar hydraulically actuated manipulator with compensation of non-actuated degree of freedom

The current work is on motion control of a hydraulically actuated manipulator with a view to handle offshore payload transfer between moving frames. The manipulator has redundant actuation and also, a non-actuated degree of freedom. The motion control has two targets: tool point control and compensation of the non-actuated degree of freedom. The redundancy is handled by means of pseudo-inverse kinematics while optimizing a cost function, avoiding mechanical joint limits. The compensation of the un-actuated degree of freedom employs LQR control, minimizing position and velocity error while maintaining the tracking reference for the tool-point. The proposed control scheme is implemented and experimentally validated in a practical system where the manipulator is mounted on a Stewart platform that allows for the simulation of wave induced heave motion as a disturbance.