Cooperative Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Operation Using Redundant Resolution Method

• Published in: International journal of precision engineering and manufacturing Vol. 23; no. 9; pp. 1003 - 1017
• Main Authors: Bae, Jangho, Moon, Yecheol, Park, Eugene, Kim, Jongwon, Jin, Sangrok, Seo, TaeWon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Seoul Korean Society for Precision Engineering 01.09.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Engineering; Industrial and Production Engineering; Kinematics; Manipulators; Materials Science; Ocean currents; Redundancy; Regular Paper; Underwater vehicles; Robot control; Manipulators; Unmanned underwater vehicles
• ISSN: 2234-7593; 2005-4602
• DOI: 10.1007/s12541-022-00685-4

This paper presents a cooperative manipulation method for a dual-arm underwater vehicle-manipulator system (UVMS). The objective task is handle valve turning, which is a common underwater task. We propose a manipulation method that includes the concept of grasping a fixed structure such as a pipeline. While grasping a fixed structure and a handle valve, the entire system can be considered a parallel manipulator. Because of the kinematic properties of the system, the load for turning the handle valve can be distributed between the vehicle and the dual-arm manipulator, which means the vehicle can help with the operation of the manipulator. In addition, external disturbances such as oceanic currents can be efficiently compensated by using the proposed cooperative method due to the properties of the system. The kinematics and dynamics of the system were analyzed. The cooperative manipulation method was developed by modifying and adjusting redundancy resolution method with theory of a parallel manipulator. To prove the superiority of the method, a dual-arm UVMS was designed and fabricated. The advantages of the proposed cooperative method were validated through simulations and experiments.