On Dynamic Nonprehensile Manipulation of Multibody Objects

In this paper, we construct a framework for studying dynamic nonprehensile manipulation systems during which multi-link manipulators would manipulate multibody objects. The multibody object is a multilink one with some actuators in the joints witch complicates the manipulation process, because the control of the object configuration could not be decoupled from the control problem of the whole process. The manipulation problem includes a series of similar manipulators manipulating a multibody object. Both object and individual manipulator can be fully actuated, under actuated, or passive. The object has two contact surfaces that alternatively are in contact with the manipulators’ contact surfaces. Each manipulator carries the object during a contact phase and passes it to the next manipulator. The passing of the object from one manipulator to the other is an instantaneous phase, namely, the impact phase. Therefore, the whole process is a nonlinear process with impulse effects. After deriving formulation for the general problem, we solve three representative examples to show the concept. In these examples we study the manipulation of active and passive objects using active and passive manipulators. Dynamic, control, motion planning, and orbital stability at the presence of impact are the most important challenges in this work.