Improvement of Free Motion Operability for Slave Robot with Underactuated Joint in Bilateral System

Abstract

The bilateral system is expected to be a key technology for the next generation of robots. However, in previous studies, bilateral systems consisted of ground-based devices with limited workspaces. In order to solve this problem, a two-wheel driven mobile manipulator is used as a slave robot in this research. This robot has excellent mobility, and it can turn on the spot and overcome a step. However, the robot is unstable because it lacks casters. If the robot tends to be unstable, it naturally cannot achieve bilateral control. Therefore, in this study, a method that takes into considering the stability of the two-wheel driven mobile manipulator is proposed. The experimental results confirm the efficiency of the proposed method.