Abstract
This paper presents a control method of pushing an object with point contact to control its position and orientation along a given trajectory. First, using the given distribution of frictional forces between the object and a support surface, we find out a particular point, named pseudo center, on which the motion of the pushed object can be approximated by the motion of wheeled mobile robot on its center. Then, a control rule of the pushing operation is derived by applying a tracking control rule for a non-holonomic mobile robot at the pseudo center. This method makes a robot possible to perform the tracking control in the pushing operation. A simulation result shows the effectiveness of the proposed method. Finally, we give an approach to use a mobile manipulator for realizing the pushing operation. Experimental verification on the proposed method is performed and its result is described.
