Autonomous motion of a mobile manipulator using a combined torque and velocity control

The paper presents an algorithm for real-time motion control of a mobile manipulator in unstructured environments. The mobile manipulator consists of a velocity controlled mobile platform and a torque controlled manipulator. Therefore, a combination of torque and velocity control is used. For the obstacle avoidance two different principles are used: virtual repulsive velocity and action-reaction principle. The proposed control method has been verified on real system, composed of a mobile platform and a four DOFs manipulator arms. The results have been compared to the manipulator with a fixed base.