Impedance Control of Flexible Base Mobile Manipulator Using Singular Perturbation Method and Sliding Mode Control Law

In this paper, the general problem of impedance control for a robotic manipulator with a moving flexible base is addressed. Impedance control imposes a relation between force and displacement at the contact point with the environment. The concept of impedance control of flexible base mobile manipulator is rather new and is being considered for first time using singular perturbation and new sliding mode control methods by authors. Initially slow and fast dynamics of robot are decoupled using singular perturbation method. Slow dynamics represents the dynamics of the manipulator with rigid base. Fast dynamics is the equivalent effect of the flexibility in the base. Then, using sliding mode control method, an impedance control law is derived for the slow dynamics. The asymptotic stability of the overall system is guaranteed using a combined control law comprising the impedance control law and a feedback control law for the fast dynamics. As first time, base flexibility was analyzed accurately in this paper for flexible base moving manipulator (FBMM). General dynamic decoupling, whole system stability guarantee and new composed robust control method were proposed. This proposed Sliding Mode Impedance Control Method (SMIC) was simulated for two FBMM models. First model is a simple FBMM composed of a 2 DOFs planar manipulator and a single DOF moving base with flexibility in between. Second FBMM model is a complete advanced 10 DOF FBMM composed of a 4 DOF manipulator and a 6 DOF moving base with flexibility. This controller provides desired position/force control accurately with satisfactory damped vibrations especially at the point of contact. This is the first time that SMIC was addressed for FBMM.