Reconfiguration of a redundant manipulator with task-oriented manipulability

Presents a new concept of a reconfigurable manipulator system which adjusts its mechanical structure to suit the kinematic characteristics of a given task. A highly redundant manipulator designed as a general purpose manipulator needs to be reconfigured for a specific task A task is decomposed of motion and force components with different control requirements: either gross motion control or fine motion control. Each of these task components can be distributed to each part of the manipulator based on the control requirements and the structure of the manipulator. Through the reconfiguration, a redundant manipulator is decomposed into two local arms, and the kinematic characteristics of each local arm is adjusted to suit the assigned task. The reconfigured redundant manipulator has two local arms well-configured for the local tasks and cooperating in serial for a given task. This globally enhances the performance of a redundant manipulator to execute a specific task.<>