Trajectory planning of multiple mobile manipulators with collision avoidance capability

Investigates multiple wheeled mobile manipulators coordinating with each other under a collision avoidance situation. Yamamoto and Yun (1994, 1997, 1999) derived kinematic and dynamic manipulability measures for multiple mobile manipulators transporting a common object. The main objective of this paper is to extend the previous approach to a system consisting of two mobile manipulators carrying a common object while avoiding a collision. The two mobile manipulators dynamically change their configurations so that they do not collide with each other while not only maintaining the support for the object but also keeping the arm's configuration away from singularities.