End-effector path tracking of a 14 DOF Rover Manipulator System in CG-Space framework

In order to resolve redundancy and path planning of a high DOF mobile manipulator using conventional approaches like Jacobian and a pseudoinverse method, researchers face the limitation of computational load and delay in response. If such kind of mobile manipulator is traversing the rough terrain, then conventional methods become too costly to implement due to the handling of redundant joints, obstacles, and wheel-terrain interaction. A few optimization-based redundancy resolution approaches try incorporating wheel-terrain interaction but fail in real-time response. This paper describes a 14 DOF Rover Manipulator System's end-effector path-tracking approach using CG-Space framework to incorporate wheel-terrain interaction. CG-Space means the center of gravity (CG) locus of the Rover. The Rover's CG is calculated while traversing over 3D terrain using a multivariable optimization method and a 3D point cloud image of the actual terrain and stored as CG-Space over the given terrain. First of all, we decide which part of the system moves to track the path, that is, arm or Rover, depending upon the manipulator's work volume and manipulability measure restrictions. The next task is to obtain the Rover pose according to the end-effector path using a simple arm's inverse kinematic solution between the CG-Space and end-effector task space without resolving redundancy. Meanwhile, obstacles and non-traversable regions are avoided in CG-Space. On diverse 3D terrains, simulation and experimental results support the suggested CG-Space framework for end-effector tracking.