Mathematical modeling and trajectory planning of mobile manipulators with flexible links and joints

This paper is concerned with mathematical modeling and optimal motion designing of flexible mobile manipulators. The system is composed of a multiple flexible links and flexible revolute joints manipulator mounted on a mobile platform. First, analyzing on kinematics and dynamics of the model is carried out then; open-loop optimal control approach is presented for optimal motion designing of the system. The problem is known to be complex since combined motion of the base and manipulator, non-holonomic constraint of the base and highly non-linear and complicated dynamic equations as a result of the flexible nature of both links and joints are taken into account. In the proposed method, the generalized coordinates and additional kinematic constraints are selected in such a way that the base motion coordination along the predefined path is guaranteed while the optimal motion trajectory of the end-effector is generated. This method by using Pontryagin's minimum principle and deriving the optimality conditions converts the optimal control problem into a two point boundary value problem. A comparative assessment of the dynamic model is validated through computer simulations, and then additional simulations are done for trajectory planning of a two-link flexible mobile manipulator to demonstrate effectiveness and capability of the proposed approach. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.