Dynamic control of 3-D rolling contacts in two-arm manipulation

When two or more arms are used to manipulate a large object, it is preferable not to have a rigid grasp in order to gain more dexterity in manipulation. It may therefore be necessary to control contact motion between the object and the effector(s) on one or more arms. This paper addresses the dynamic control of two arms cooperatively manipulating a large object with rolling contacts. In the framework presented here, the motion of the object as well as the loci of the contact point either on the surface of each effector or on the object can be directly controlled. The velocity and acceleration equations for three-dimensional rolling contacts are derived in order to obtain a dynamic model of the system. A nonlinear feedback control algorithm that decouples and linearizes the system is developed. This is used to demonstrate the control of rolling motion along each arm and the adaptation of grasps to varying loads.