Formation Motion Planning for Payload Transport by Modular Wheeled Mobile Manipulators

ii To my family Pappa, Mom, Bhai, Bhabhi and Vrusti iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Venkat Krovi, for giving me an opportunity to work under him. He was not only my mentor but also a friend and on occasions, a guardian guiding me through whenever I needed the most. His excellence in the field and enthusiasm to work extended hours has always been a source of inspiration. for reading through my thesis and making a number of helpful suggestions. I am obliged to Chin Pei Tang for all the discussions and for his painstaking effort of going through the text of this thesis. Pravin Nair was the best companion inside and outside the lab. Seung-Kook Jun was always available for any kind of help and inspiration I ever needed. Narayana Sundaram, I miss your joyful company from the day you left ARMLab. I would also like to thank Leng-Feng, Glenn, Ajay, Dan, Harpreet, Talib and all other present and past ARMLab members for making it such a nice place to work in. I would like to thank Chetan for his appetizing food. Special thanks to Ravishankar who spent nights understanding my work and giving me suggestions on my presentation. I Amid stressful hours of writing thesis, entertaining jokes during Starbucks visits with Ashwin and Chin-Pei Tang were best entertainment that I can hope for. I would also like to thank Mrs. iv Yugendra, Eric and all friends and fellow Buffaloites, there are way too many to list here, for those happy memories which I shall carry along with me wherever I go. and every thing that they have done for me. Their perpetual encouragement, support and faith in me even during my absence were vital aspects that led towards the completion of this thesis. I dedicate this work to them.