Motion coordination and dexterous manipulation for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Ocean Engineering
• Control Systems

Background:

• Underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMSs) face challenges in redundancy resolution, impacting end-effector tracking and maneuverability.
• Singular configurations limit the operational capabilities of robotic manipulators.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel redundancy resolution approach for UVMSs that ensures end-effector tracking accuracy.
• To enhance dexterous manipulation and motion coordination while avoiding manipulator singularities.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a task-priority redundancy resolution framework for coordinated vehicle-manipulator motion.
• Incorporated a low-priority dexterous manipulation task for reconfiguring the UVMS.
• Implemented a high-priority inequality-based singularity avoidance task.

Main Results:

• The proposed approach effectively guarantees end-effector tracking accuracy.
• Singular configurations were successfully avoided by maintaining manipulability above a minimum threshold.
• Demonstrated significant improvements in UVMS dexterity and coordination.

Conclusions:

• The novel redundancy resolution method enhances the performance of UVMSs.
• The approach offers a robust solution for complex underwater manipulation tasks.
• Experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed strategy.