Cooperative Towing With Multiple Robots

Abstract

In this paper, we address the cooperative towing of payloads by multiple mobile robots that move in the plane. Robots are attached via cables to an object or a pallet carrying a payload, and they coordinate their motion to manipulate the payload through a planar warehouselike environment. We formulate a quasistatic model for manipulation and derive equations of motion that yield the motion of the payload for a prescribed motion of the robots in the presence of dry friction and tension constraints. We present the experimental results that demonstrate the basic concepts.