Control Strategies for Nonholonomic Mobile Manipulators
Summary
Nonholonomic mobile manipulators integrate a wheeled or tracked base subject to nonintegrable motion constraints with a multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm. The term nonholonomic denotes that the platform’s velocities cannot be arbitrarily assigned in all directions, for example preventing lateral slipping of standard wheels. This underactuation and the dynamic coupling between base and arm present unique challenges for both trajectory planning and real-time control. Contemporary strategies address these challenges through a combination of kinematic transformations, optimisation-based trajectory generation, Lyapunov-stability-guided feedback laws, hybrid force/motion schemes and data-driven predictive controllers. Key considerations include obstacle avoidance, tip-over prevention, singularity and manipulability optimisation, energy efficiency and robustness to model uncertainties or external disturbances. Practical applications span factory automation, remote inspection in hazardous environments and human–robot collaboration, where accurate positioning, safe interaction and adaptability to changing tasks are paramount. By leveraging advances in dynamic modelling, optimisation algorithms and robust control design, research continues to extend the operational envelope of nonholonomic mobile manipulators towards greater autonomy, safety and functional versatility.
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Control Strategies for Nonholonomic Mobile Manipulators publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in control strategies for nonholonomic mobile manipulators across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Nonholonomic constraint: A restriction on a robot’s velocities that cannot be expressed solely in terms of position variables, typically preventing sideways motion of wheeled bases.
Dynamic coupling: The interdependence between base and manipulator dynamics, where motion of one subsystem induces forces or moments on the other.
Hybrid force/motion control: A control paradigm that simultaneously regulates manipulator motion and interaction forces, often by partitioning task space into compliant and rigid directions.
Tip-over stability constraint: A safety criterion ensuring that the resultant moments about the robot’s support polygon remain within safe limits to prevent overturning.
Lyapunov stability theory: A mathematical framework for designing feedback laws that guarantee convergence of system states to desired trajectories or equilibria.
References
- Coupled dynamic modeling and experimental validation of a collaborative industrial mobile manipulator with human-robot interaction. Mechanism and Machine Theory (2022).
- On Robust Hybrid Force/Motion Control Strategies Based on Actuator Dynamics for Nonholonomic Mobile Manipulators. Journal of Applied Mathematics (2012).
- Time and Energy Optimal Trajectory Planning of Wheeled Mobile Dual-Arm Robot Based on Tip-Over Stability Constraint. Applied Sciences (2023).
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