This article addresses the problem of cooperative object transportation for multiple underwater vehicle manipulator systems (UVMSs) in a constrained workspace with static obstacles, where the coordination relies solely on implicit communication arising from the physical interaction of the robots with the commonly grasped object. In this article, we propose a novel distributed leader–follower architecture, where the leading UVMS, which has knowledge of the object's desired trajectory, tries to achieve the desired tracking behavior via an impedance control law, navigating in this way, the overall formation toward the goal configuration while avoiding collisions with the obstacles. On the other hand, the following UVMSs estimate locally the object's desired trajectory via a novel prescribed performance estimation law and implement a similar impedance control law that achieves tracking of the desired trajectory despite the uncertainty and external disturbance in the object and the UVMS dynamics, respectively. The feedback relies on each UVMS's force/torque measurements and no explicit data is exchanged online among the robots, thus reducing the required communication bandwidth and increasing robustness. Moreover, the control scheme adopts load sharing among the UVMSs according to their specific payload capabilities. Finally, various simulation studies clarify the proposed method and verify its efficiency.

中文翻译：

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精益通信下的多个水下航行器机械手系统的协作阻抗控制

本文解决了在带有静态障碍物的受限工作空间中，多个水下车辆操纵器系统（UVMS）的协作对象运输问题，其中协调仅依赖于机器人与通常抓取的对象之间的物理交互而产生的隐式通信。在本文中，我们提出了一种新颖的分布式领导者跟随者架构，其中领先的UVMS了解对象的期望轨迹，试图通过阻抗控制定律来实现期望的跟踪行为，以这种方式导航，从而朝着总体方向发展。目标配置，同时避免与障碍物碰撞。另一方面，以下UVMS会在本地估算对象的 通过新颖的规定性能估算定律确定理想轨迹，并实现类似的阻抗控制定律，尽管对象的不确定性和外部干扰以及UVMS动力学分别实现了对理想轨迹的跟踪。反馈依赖于每个UVMS的力/扭矩测量值，并且机器人之间不会在线交换任何明确的数据，从而减少了所需的通信带宽并提高了鲁棒性。此外，该控制方案根据UVMS之间的特定有效负载能力在其之间采用负载分担。最后，各种仿真研究阐明了该方法并验证了其有效性。反馈依赖于每个UVMS的力/扭矩测量值，并且机器人之间不会在线交换任何明确的数据，从而减少了所需的通信带宽并提高了鲁棒性。此外，控制方案根据UVMS之间的特定有效负载能力采用负载共享。最后，各种仿真研究阐明了该方法并验证了其有效性。反馈依赖于每个UVMS的力/扭矩测量值，并且机器人之间不会在线交换任何明确的数据，从而减少了所需的通信带宽并提高了鲁棒性。此外，控制方案根据UVMS之间的特定有效负载能力采用负载共享。最后，各种仿真研究阐明了该方法并验证了其有效性。