Maximising Wrenches for Kinematically Redundant Systems with Experiments on UVMS
This work addresses the challenge of enhancing wrench capability for UVMS, which is crucial for tasks like lifting heavy loads or turning valves underwater, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing optimization methods.
The paper tackles the problem of maximizing contact wrenches in desired directions for Underwater Vehicles Manipulator Systems (UVMS) by formulating it as a linear programming problem and solving optimal configurations through bi-level optimization. Experimental results on an underwater robotic platform with a 4DOF manipulator show significant increases in wrench capability compared to existing methods.
This paper presents methods for finding optimal configurations and actuator forces/torques to maximise contact wrenches in a desired direction for Underwater Vehicles Manipulator Systems (UVMS). The wrench maximisation problem is formulated as a linear programming problem, and the optimal configuration is solved as a bi-level optimisation in the parameterised redundancy space. We additionally consider the cases of one or more manipulators with multiple contact forces, maximising wrench capability while tracking a trajectory, and generating large wrench impulses using dynamic motions. We look at the specific cases of maximising force to lift a heavy load, and maximising torque during a valve turning operation. Extensive experimental results are presented using an underwater robotic platform equipped with a 4DOF manipulator, and show significant increases in wrench capability compared to existing methods for UVMS.