Modelling and control of a 2-link mobile manipulator with virtual prototyping

Mobile manipulators are nowadays popular in various fields, including military missions, civil defense, rescue, and social services. Along with the wide use of such robots, the associated control problems require more and more attention to the nonlinearity and uncertainties of the dynamic models. In this paper, targeting the challenges of trajectory control for applications in which the robots have to overcome complex terrain conditions, we present a rapid virtual prototyping using Matlab-Simulink with embedded design and implementation of two control strategies - feedforward nonlinear control and adaptive control for controlling the end-effector of a two-link robot arm with/without well-known models. Simulation results show the efficacy of the feedforward nonlinear controller and adaptive controller developed. Comparisons of the performances are made to provide an analytical evaluation as well as a general reference for selecting controllers in different cases.