Akinobu Okuda

Distributed Control of Hyper-redundant Manipulator with Expansion and Contraction Motion for Obstacle Avoidance

A distributed control method for hyper-redundant manipulators, which is applicable to obstacle avoidance in complicated, unknown and varying environment, is proposed. The manipulator basically makes expansion and contraction motion. It can move into/out of long and narrow space like pipes. A manipulator consists of serially connected joint units. One controller, using local information from its proximity sensors and its neighboring units, controls each unit. Both the end-effector and several units can have their own desired positions and can converge stably. Hence, only if a unit which detects an obstacle with its sensors sets\ its desired position a certain distance away from the obstacle, the manipulator can move along the obstacle while keeping the distance. Computer simulations and experiments ascertain the effectiveness and usefulness of the method.