Dynamic object manipulation by an array of 1-DOF manipulators: Kinematic modeling and planning

Dynamic manipulation of polygonal objects by an array of one degree of freedom arms is studied from kinematics and planning points of view. In the studied manipulation method, an object is manipulated to its goal configuration by a sequence of juggles.A kinematic model of an object throwing task is driven and a method for object manipulation by a sequence of throws is proposed. The method, called Backward Throws Method (BTM), is based on throwing an object backward towards the arm pivot. Based on the developed model, a planning algorithm is proposed for BTM. In addition, the only existing similar method to BTM, which is based on forward throws–named FTM in this paper–is reformulated for implementation by a series of arms and compared with the proposed method.Analytical investigations, simulation results, and experimental outcomes show that BTM meets the desired requirements. Moreover, in comparison to FTM, BTM requires fewer number of throws and lower release velocity. In addition, the object’s maximum height of flight is much lower in BTM which results in lower catching impact. According to the experimental results, although the proposed method has no feedback from object position, accumulated position error is very small. This fact is directly related to the attained decrease in catching impact which causes small object slippage and rebound on catching. Furthermore, there is no restriction on the arm geometry in BTM while in FTM an arm with negative offset is needed.