Balancing Control of a Mobile Manipulator with Two Wheels by an Acceleration-Based Disturbance Observer

Abstract

This paper presents the balancing control performance of a mobile manipulator built in the laboratory as a service robot called Korean robot worker (KOBOKER). The robot is designed and implemented with two wheels as a mobile base and two arms with six degrees-of-freedom each. Kinematics and dynamics of the robot are analyzed. For the balancing control performance, two wheels are controlled independently by the time-delayed control method based on the inertia model of the robot. The acceleration information obtained directly from the sensor is used for the modified disturbance observer structure called an acceleration-based disturbance observer (AbDOB). Experimental studies of the balancing control of the robot are conducted to compare the control performances by both a PID control method and an AbDOB.