Planning and model-based control for mobile manipulators

Mobile manipulator systems, comprised of a mobile platform with one or more manipulators, are of great interest in a number of applications. This paper presents a planning and control methodology for such systems allowing them to follow simultaneously desired end-effector and platform trajectories without violating the nonholonomic constraints. Based on a reduction of system dynamics, a model-based controller is designed to eliminate tracking errors without requiring large gains. The sensitivity to parameter errors is examined and found to be negligible. The validity of the methodology is demonstrated using example systems.