Control of Manipulator/Vehicle System on Water

The manipulator/vehicle system floating on water consists of a vehicle and a manipulator attached to it. Similar to the space manipulator/vehicle system, the system on water is not fixed to an inertial coordinate system. Moreover, the external forces affect the motion of the system, and the interaction of motions among the vehicle, the manipulator and water causes vibration of the system. This paper discusses the control issues of a manipulator/vehicle system floating on water and proposes an algorithm to control both the endpoint trajectory of the manipulator and the vibration of the vehicle simultaneously using redundant actuators. We develop the basic kinematic equations and then derive the equation, which describes the dynamic relation between the system and the external forces/moments applied to it, then propose a simultaneous control algorithm of the manipulator endpoint trajectory and the vibration of the vehicle. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control algorithm.