Control of a multirobot bricklaying system

Abstract

AbstractResearch is increasingly shifting from the design and control of single robots toward collaborative methods for multirobot systems. Particularly interesting are heterogeneous systems since the combination of different capabilities can tackle tasks that are difficult, if not impossible, to perform with a single robot. In this article we propose a scheme for the control of a novel heterogeneous multirobot system designed for bricklaying where the use of a single robot is not feasible due to the weight of the payloads to be managed. The proposed solution is based on a crane which cooperates with a lightweight rigid robot. The correct cooperation between the two robotic subunits poses a series of control challenges that must be studied in the context of cooperative manipulation of an object. In this article, we first derive the mathematical model of this novel robotic system during the positioning of the block. Then a control law is proposed. The proposed law is based on an ad hoc inverse dynamic control which takes advantage of the overactuation of the resulting connected system to unload the robotic arm from the weight of the block. A physical CAD‐based simulator of the system is used to show the effectiveness of the proposed control law and to show that the proposed architecture allows to position precisely large and heavy blocks while using a relatively small rigid robotic manipulator.