Task space control of mobile manipulators

This study offers the solution of the end-effector trajectory tracking problem subject to state constraints, suitably transformed into control-dependent ones, for mobile manipulators. Based on the Lyapunov stability theory, a class of controllers fulfilling the above constraints and generating the mobile manipulator trajectory with (instantaneous) minimal energy, is proposed. The problem of manipulability enforcement is solved here based on an exterior penalty function approach which results in continuous mobile manipulator controls even near boundaries of state constraints. The numerical simulation results carried out for a mobile manipulator consisting of a non-holonomic unicycle and a holonomic manipulator of two revolute kinematic pairs, operating in a two-dimensional task space, illustrate the performance of the proposed controllers.