Controlled synchronization of networked mobile manipulators under switching topologies

This paper addresses distributed controllers to synchronize a network of nonholonomic mobile manipulators connecting over switching topologies. The issues of communication delays and possible disconnections between robots are taken into account. With Lyapunov-Krasovskii functionals, the networked robotic system is proved to be stable, and the convergence of the synchronization and tracking errors to zero are also guaranteed. Subsequently, the proposed synchronization system is extended for a networked mobile manipulators to keep a formation in the applications of cooperative manipulation. Numerical examples are addressed to demonstrate the performance of the proposed networked robotic systems. Moreover, the ability of the synchronization system to suppress external disturbances has been introduced via simulations.