Effect of the dynamic interaction on coordinated control of mobile manipulators

A mobile manipulator composed of a manipulator and a mobile platform has a much larger workspace than a fixed-base manipulator due to the mobility provided by the platform. While the on-board manipulator reaches out and performs manipulation tasks, the role of the mobile platform is to position the manipulator in a preferred configuration. In this paper, we study the effect of the dynamic interaction between the manipulator and the mobile platform of a mobile manipulator on the task performance. We consider the task that the end point of the manipulator tracks a desired trajectory in a fixed reference frame. The effect of the dynamic interaction on the tracking performance is examined by comparing four different cases: 1) with full compensation of the dynamic interaction with each other; 2) with the mobile platform compensating the dynamic interaction caused by the manipulator; 3) with the manipulator compensating the dynamic interaction caused by the mobile platform; and 4) without any compensation of the dynamic interaction at all. Simulation results from representative trajectories are presented to illustrate the effect.