Computed Torque Control (CTC) is an effective motion control strategy for robotic manipulator systems, which can ensure globally asymptotic stability. However, CTC scheme requires precise dynamical models of robotic manipulators. To handle this impossibility, in this paper, a new approach combing CTC and Fuzzy Control (FC) is developed for trajectory tracking problems of robotic manipulators wi...

A new nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) for robotic manipulators is derived in this paper. The global exponential stability of the proposed disturbance observer (DO) is guaranteed by selecting design parameters, which depend on the maximum velocity and physical parameters of robotic manipulators. This new observer overcomes the disadvantages of existing DO’s, which are designed or analyzed b...

The main focus of this work is to perform the gravity balancing of a seven degrees-of-freedom (DOFs) hybrid manipulator. A hybrid manipulator is a combination of openand closed-loop chains and contains planar and spatial links. Gravity balancing is an important aspect for robotic manipulators, especially for serial manipulators, where with increase in number of links, the gravitational effect o...

In this paper, kinematic models for multiple manipulator space robotic systems are developed, as functions of body-fixed barycentric vectors. These models are used to define workspaces for single and multi-manipulator freefloating systems. It is shown that following the capture of a large payload, the location of these workspaces in space changes, and their size is reduced. These effects, commo...

We describe a robotic system composed of a manipulator and two cameras. We use the vision system to guide the robot hand to a visible target. The camera positions are known only approximately. Our system does not use the details of the kinematics of the manipulator. There is no common frame of reference linking vision system, workspace and robot hand. The stereo vision system gives information ...

The energy efficiency of a robotic manipulator is important, particularly when that manipulator is used in conjunction with a mobile robot with limited battery life. In this paper the energy efficiency (in terms of the electrical energy usage) of a spatial three DOF parallel manipulator is compared to a serial manipulator with the same drive motors and a similar workspace. The effects of endeff...

Recent developments in BCI techniques have demonstrated high-performance control of robotic prosthetic systems primarily via invasive methods. In this work we develop an electroencephalography (EEG) based noninvasive BCI system that can be used for a similar, albeit lower-speed, robotic manipulator control and a signal processing system for detecting user’s mental intent based on motor-imagery ...

We present a robotic system designed to provide physical assistance to a person in bed. The system consists of a robotic bed (Autobed) and a mobile manipulator (PR2) that work together. The 3 degree-of-freedom (DoF) robotic bed moves the person’s body and uses a pressure sensing mat to estimate the body’s position. The mobile manipulator positions itself with respect to the bed and compliantly ...

In this article we present a scheme for mobile manipulation by introducing a Mobile Manipulation Control Architecture (MMCA). This architecture is motivated by a need for a systematic control structure for robotic manipulation within a behavior based framework. The control structure enables integration of the manipulator into a behavior based control structure for the platform. Furthermore, our...

At present, robotic manipulators are commonly used in manufacturing industry. In many cases, their end-effectors are required to move from one place to the other and follow some desired trajectories. This paper develops a nonlinear backstepping control design scheme with velocity observers for the trajectory tracking control of robotic manipulators. In fact, most of robot manipulator controller...