Advanced task realization of multi-robot systems by interaction mode control

This paper proposes a unified control approach for multi-robot systems by interaction mode control. The proposed interaction mode control considers only the interactions between the systems. The interactions are abstracted by using the quarry matrix. Since the transformed modes are independent to each other, it is possible to design controller in the modal space. This paper also proposes a novel control index named "hybrid ratio". The hybrid ratio is defined as the influence of the external acceleration input to the acceleration response of the system. Since it is possible to realize the assigned hybrid ratio in each mode according to the task, the motion command with the hybrid ratio is represented as the task code. Furthermore, the task code is able to be changed during the motion. Thus, the interaction mode control is treated as the task kinematics. As a result, intuitive and flexible controller design is attained by the proposed method. The proposed interaction mode control is applied for cooperative transportation by multi-robot systems. The experimental results show viability of the proposed method.