Virtual-mechanism-based analysis of cooperative manipulation

This paper proposes a new approach for analysing cooperative manipulation in which cooperative manipulators form a mechanism closure that allows a virtual-mechanism-based analysis to take place. The method is based on the geometry of manipulators during manipulation and converts the cooperative manipulation problem into the analysis of a hypothetical mechanism so that the mechanism theory can be used for the manipulation. This mechanism is hence generated by the fact that the end points (or geometric centres of respective grippers) of cooperative manipulators coincide with a virtual joint during cooperative manipulation. The analysis not only generates positions and orientations of the end effectors of cooperative manipulators but also produces corresponding link configurations that can be used for manipulation planning. The approach is further used for the orientation-based trajectory planning with two different cases. Simulations and discussions are made with respect to cooperative manipulations using two 2R manipulators and one 2R manipulators and one 3R manipulator.