Planning and model-based control for mobile manipulators

Mobile manipulator systems, comprised of a mobile platform with one or more manipulators, are of great interest in a number of applications. This paper presents a planning and control methodology for such systems allowing them to follow simultaneously desired end-effector and platform trajectories without violating the nonholonomic constraints. Based on a reduction of system dynamics, a model-based controller i s designed to eliminate tracking errors without requiring large gains. The sensitivity to parameter errors is examined and found to be negligible. The validity of the methodology i s demonstrated using example systems.