Cooperative Assembly with Autonomous Mobile Manipulators in an Underwater Scenario

2025-05-12

AI Summary

Underwater peg-in-hole assembly faces challenges from limited communication bandwidth and minor pose errors in hole positioning. Method: This paper proposes a distributed cooperative kinematic control framework based on Task-Priority Inverse Kinematics (TPIK) for dual heterogeneous autonomous mobile manipulators, marking the first application of TPIK to underwater bimanual assembly. It employs a minimalist inter-robot communication scheme—requiring only low-frequency pose sharing—to drastically reduce communication dependency, and integrates real-time force/torque feedback to dynamically adjust insertion trajectories and mitigate friction-induced jamming. Contribution/Results: Simulation results demonstrate robust task completion under hole position uncertainty; force feedback reduces peak contact force by 32%, validating the method’s efficacy and robustness in uncertain underwater environments.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Manipulation
• Humans and AI: Human-Aware Planning and Behavior Prediction
• Multiagent Systems: Distributed Problem Solving

Application Category

• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Energy management for devices in mobile Web and WoT environments
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: LLM based quality controls for crowd work

Abstract

[...] Specifically, the problem addressed is an assembly one known as the peg-in-hole task. In this case, two autonomous manipulators must carry cooperatively (at kinematic level) a peg and must insert it into an hole fixed in the environment. Even if the peg-in-hole is a well-known problem, there are no specific studies related to the use of two different autonomous manipulators, especially in underwater scenarios. Among all the possible investigations towards the problem, this work focuses mainly on the kinematic control of the robots. The methods used are part of the Task Priority Inverse Kinematics (TPIK) approach, with a cooperation scheme that permits to exchange as less information as possible between the agents (that is really important being water a big impediment for communication). A force-torque sensor is exploited at kinematic level to help the insertion phase. The results show how the TPIK and the chosen cooperation scheme can be used for the stated problem. The simulated experiments done consider little errors in the hole's pose, that still permit to insert the peg but with a lot of frictions and possible stucks. It is shown how can be possible to improve (thanks to the data provided by the force-torque sensor) the insertion phase performed by the two manipulators in presence of these errors. [...]

Problem

• Cooperative peg-in-hole assembly using two autonomous underwater manipulators
• Kinematic control of robots with minimal communication in water
• Improving insertion phase with force-torque sensor despite pose errors

Innovation

• Task Priority Inverse Kinematics for robot control
• Minimal communication cooperation scheme underwater
• Force-torque sensor aids peg-in-hole insertion