Multi-agent system inspired distributed control of a serial-link robot

Abstract

Inspired by the multi-agent systems, we propose a model-based distributed control architecture for robotic manipulators. Here, each of the joints of the manipulator is controlled using a joint level controller and these controllers account for the dynamic coupling between the links by interacting among themselves. Apart from the reduced computational time due to distributed computation of the control law at the joint levels, the knowledge of dynamics is fully utilized in the proposed control scheme, unlike the decentralized control schemes proposed in the literature. While the proposed distributed control architecture is useful for a general serial-link manipulator, in this paper, we focus on planar manipulators with revolute joints. We provide a simple model-based distributed control scheme as an illustration of the proposed distributed model-based control architecture. Based on this scheme, distributed model-based controller has been designed for a planar 3R manipulator and simulations results are presented to demonstrate that the manipulator successfully tracks the desired trajectory. © 2020, Industrial Research Institute for Automation and Measurements. All rights reserved.