Cooperative transport with regrasping of torque-limited mobile robots

Abstract

This paper deals with a motion planning of mobile robots during the cooperative transport of a large abject by a group of multiple mobile robots (a robot group). In spite of the complexity of the relationship between the several kinds of requirements for this problem, motion planning should be done in real time according to each robot's torque limit to apply its force to the object. Based on the algorithm of Ota et al. (1995), the authors propose the following approach: (1) derive handling force applied to the object by each robot, and (2) determine the role for each robot (to handle the object or to regrasp it) by each robot's torque limit and optimization of a penalty index indicating performance for obstacle avoidance, stable grasping, and reduction of force. Effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a transferring simulation.