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The paper presents an overview on the use of a behavior-based approach, namely the Null-Space-based Behavioral (NSB) approach, to control multi-robot systems in a wide application domain. The NSB approach has been recently developed to control the motion of generic robotic systems; it uses a projection mechanism to combine the multiple, prioritized, behaviors that compose the robotic mission so that the lower priority behaviors do not effect the higher priority ones. In this paper we describe how the NSB approach has been used to control different multi-robot systems (e.g., composed of wheeled and marine robots) to achieve missions such as formation control, entrapping/escorting of targets, control of mobile ad-hoc networks, flocking, border patrol and cooperative caging.

In this paper, an approach to control the motion of a platoon of autonomous vehicles is presented. The proposed technique is based on the definition of suitable task functions that are handled in the framework of singularity-robust task-priority inverse kinematics. The algorithm is implemented by a two-stage control architecture such that intervehicle communication is not required. The effectiveness of the approach is investigated by means of numerical simulation case studies. Index Terms--Closed-loop inverse kinematics, formation control, multirobot systems, platoon of vehicles.

For a mobile robot, odometry calibration consists of the identification of a set of kinematic parameters that allow reconstructing the vehicle's absolute position and orientation starting from the wheels' encoder measurements. This paper develops a systematic method for odometry calibration of differential-drive mobile robots. As a first step, the kinematic equations are written so as to underline linearity in a suitable set of unknown parameters; thus, the least-squares method can be applied to estimate them. A major advantage of the adopted formulation is that it provides a quantitative measure of the optimality of a test motion; this can be exploited to drive guidelines on the choice of the test trajectories and to evaluate accuracy of a solution. The proposed technique has been experimentally validated on two different mobile robots and, in one case, compared with other existing approaches; the obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed calibration method. Index Terms--Calibration, identification, mobile robot kinematics, mobile robots, parameter estimation.

A novel adaptive control law for the end-effector tracking problem of underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMSs) is presented in this paper. By exploiting the serial-chain kinematic structure of the UVMS, the overall control problem is decomposed in a set of elementary control problems, each of them formulated with respect to a single rigid body in the system. The proposed approach results in a modular control scheme which simplifies application to UVMSs with a large number of links, reduces the required computational burden, and allows efficient implementation on distributed computing architectures. Furthermore, the occurrence of kinematic and representation singularities is overcome, respectively, by expressing the control law in body-fixed coordinates and representing the attitude via the unit quaternion. To show the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy, a simulation case study is developed for a vehicle in spatial motion carrying a six-degree-of-freedom manipulator. Index Terms--Adaptive control, control of redundant manipulators, underwater robotics, virtual decomposition control.

The presence of joint velocity and acceleration limits must be taken into account by the inverse kinematics of robot manipulators, so as to avoid incorrect task execution when these are violated. To solve this problem, a novel algorithmic approach to kinematic control is presented in this paper, which guarantees that the joint variables do not overtake their limits. The proposed technique is based on a new second-order inverse kinematics algorithm, which enables the handling of velocity and acceleration constraints while tracking the desired end-effector path. The goal is achieved by suitably slowing down the task-space trajectory via a time warp when joints limits are encountered. The proposed method is designed for on-line applications, i.e., the desired trajectory is not known in advance, and requires a light computational burden. The application of the proposed approach is finally illustrated in experiments implemented on a six-degree-of-freedom industrial robot manipulator. Index Terms--Inverse kinematics algorithms, kinematic control, path tracking.

Interaction of underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMSs) with the environment is affected by several design constraints such as uncertainty in the model knowledge, presence of hydrodynamic effects, kinematic redundancy of the system, and poor performance of vehicle's actuating system. This paper presents an external force control scheme for UVMSs that does not require dynamic compensation; however, it can benefit from the knowledge of part of the dynamic model. The possible occurrence of loss of contact, due to vehicle movement during the task, is also taken into account. A numerical case study shows the application of the proposed technique in a given task. Index Terms--Force control, redundant robots, underwater robotics, underwater vehicle-manipulator systems.

The control problem for a truly cooperative manipulator system cannot be regarded as a simple extension of single manipulator control since additional complexity arises from the need for ensuring coordinated motion of the system. Recently, we have proposed a control strategy based on two stages, namely, kinematic inversion of a set of cooperative task variables and a joint space control law with kinetostatic filtering of cooperative task space errors; this strategy avoids some of the drawbacks of other approaches. In this paper, the stability analysis for the joint space control law is provided and asymptotic stability of a set of equilibrium points is demonstrated. The case of imperfect compensation of the gravity terms has been analyzed. The addition of a force loop to achieve internal force regulation is also discussed. Index Terms - Cooperative manipulators, robotics, stability.

Practical application of the task-priority redundancy resolution technique must deal with the occurrence of kinematic and algorithmic singularities. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, the application of existing singularity-robust methods to the case of kinematically redundant arms is studied. Then, a new task-priority redundancy resolution technique is developed that overcomes the effects of algorithmic singularities. Computational aspects of the solutions are also considered in view of real-time implementation of a kinematic control algorithm. The method is applied to a seven-degree-of-freedom manipulator in numerical case studies to demonstrate its effectiveness.

Stable force/position regulation of robot manipulators in contact with an elastically compliant surface is discussed in this work. The controller consists of a PD action on the position loop, a PI action on the force loop, together with gravity compensation and desired contact force feedforward. Asymptotic stability of the system in the neighborhood of the equilibrium state is proven via the classical Lyapunov method with LaSalle invariant set theorem. A modification of the Lyapunov function leads to deriving an exponential stability result. Numerical case studies are developed for an industrial manipulator.

Abstract - Force/position control strategies provide an effective framework to deal with tasks involving interaction with the environment. In this paper the parallel approach to force/position control of robotic manipulators is presented. It allows a complete use of the available sensor measurements by operating the control action in a full dimensional space without using selection matrices. Conflicting situations between the position and force tasks are managed using a priority strategy: the force control loop is designed to prevail over the position control loop. This choice ensures limited deviations from the prescribed force trajectory in every situation, guaranteeing automatic recovery from unplanned collisions. A dynamic force/position parallel control law is presented and its performance in presence of an elastic environment is analyzed; simplification of the dynamic control law is also discussed leading to a PID-type parallel controller. Two case studies are worked out that show the effectiveness of the approach in application to an industrial robot.