Robust adaptive control of coordinated multiple mobile manipulators

In this paper, we investigate robust adaptive controls of multiple mobile manipulators carrying a common object in a cooperative manner with unknown inertia parameters and disturbances. First, a concise dynamics consisting of the dynamics of mobile manipulators and the geometrical constraints between the end-effectors and the object is developed for coordinated multiple mobile manipulators. Subsequently, we design robust adaptive controls where parametric uncertainties are compensated by adaptive update techniques and the disturbances are suppressed. The controls ensure that the output tracking errors of the system converge to zero whereas the internal force tracking error remains bounded and can be made arbitrarily small. Throughout this paper, feedback control design and stability analysis are performed via explicit Lyapunov techniques. Simulation studies on the control of coordinated two wheels driven mobile manipulators show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.