Coordinated Control with Obstacle Avoidance for Robot Manipulators

Problem Description SINTEF and NTNU are, together with StatoilHydro, investigating how to remotely control operations on offshore oil platforms by employing robots. One of the key challenges for remote control of offshore oil platforms is how to endow an onshore operator with the right amount and type of information so that the operator can remotely control the various operations needed to be carried out on an oil platform (e.g., by controlling a robot manipulator which performs these operations). This can be partly solved by having a robot manipulator act as an automated camera platform that ensures a clear view of the robot operation carried out by a second robot controlled by the operator. In order to develop such a system, a controller is needed that endows the robot with the camera mounted to follow the motion of the operator controlled robot without colliding with the other robot, itself, or its environment. Hence, a controller with collisions avoidance capabilities for coordinated control of robot manipulators is needed. Such coordinated control will be the topic of this project. Preliminary set of tasks: 1. Perform a literature study on coordinated control of robot manipulators with collision avoidance. 2. Propose a strategy for coordinated control with obstacle avoidance for the two robot manipulators in the lab 3. Implement a simulator for the robot manipulator 4. Verify the proposed strategy by simulations Summary This thesis addresses the problem of robot synchronization with obstacle avoidance. While these two fields have been studied extensively on their own, they have not yet been considered together as one problem. This thesis is divided roughly into four parts which are to some extent self contained. The theory is presented in a narrative that culminates with the stability proof of the proposed controller. Examples and figures are used in order to keep the material manageable and readable. The introductory part of the thesis consists of chapters 1 and 2. We present the notation and some mathematical background which is necessary for the theoretical analysis. We go on to review the diversity of ways in which one may approach this problem from a control design standpoint. We derive the robot dynamical model in chapter 3 as well as solve other modeling specific problems. This chapter is of little theoretical interest, but is needed to implement a simulator on which we may test our controller. This chapter contains no new contributions but can …