Motion control of Passive Robot Porter with variable motion characteristics for handling a single object

In this paper, we introduce omni-directional object handling robot system developed based on passive robotics and propose its motion control algorithm for realizing variable motion characteristics of the handling object. Passive object handling robot called PRP (Passive Robot Porter) is controlled by servo brakes attached to the wheels of the robot. By designing the control algorithms of the servo brakes appropriately, the PRP has many functions such as navigation function and collision avoidance. In this paper, we especially focus on a motion control of the PRP for realizing variable motion characteristics of the handling object. If we can change the motion characteristics of it arbitrarily based on the servo brake control of the PRP, the maneuverability of the human operator would be improved. In this paper, we design the motion control algorithm and implement it to the PRP experimentally. Experimental results of the object handling illustrate the validity of the proposed method.