A task-level approach for the position control of macro-mini robotic systems

This article proposes a new task level approach to control the position of macro-mini robotic systems. The proposed method combines redundancy resolution and PI compensation. Taking advantage of the redundancy resolution, this control method accounts for the differences in the dynamics of the macro robot and the mini robot during positioning tasks while ensuring that both robots respect their mechanical limits. The combination with a PI compensation improves the control performance in tracking tasks. This work also presents the adaptation of two other separate methods, namely mid-ranging control and Model Predictive Control, to macro-mini robots. A new macro-mini robot is introduced and experiments, in which the three control methods perform the same trajectories, are conducted. The control performance as well as the advantages or drawbacks of each method are compared. The general behavior of each robot component is also observed and analyzed. Finally, several practical issues and potential future work are discussed.