Payload Maximization for Mobile Flexible Manipulators in an Environment with Obstacle

Mobile flexible manipulator is developed in order to achieve the high performance requirements such as high-speed operation, increased high payload to mass ratio, less weight, and safer operation due to reduced inertia. Hence, this paper presents a method for finding the Maximum Allowable Dynamic Load (MADL) of geometrically nonlinear flexible link mobile manipulators. Full dynamic model of wheeled mobile base and mounted flexible manipulator is considered with respect to the dynamic of non-holonomic constraint in an environment including obstacle. In dynamic analysis, an efficient model is employed to describe the treatment of flexible structure, in which both the geometric elastic nonlinearity and the foreshortening effects are considered. Then, a path planning algorithm is developed to find the maximum payload that the optimal strategy is based on the indirect solution of the open-loop optimal control problem. In order to verify the effectiveness of the presented algorithm, several simulation studies are carried out for finding the optimal path between two points in the presence of obstacles. The results clearly show the effect of flexibility and proposed approach on the mobile flexible manipulators.