Position/Force Control of an Underwater Mobile Manipulator

This paper proposes a new control method applied to an underwater vehicle equipped with a robot manipulator. This control method is based on force control to stabilise the platform when the manipulator works in free or constrained space. The torque produced by the arm on the platform is estimated with a force sensor installed between the base of the manipulator and the vehicle. This allows correcting the position errors of the platform using an external force control loop. This paper presents this control law and shows some simulation results.