Manipulability and maneuverability ellipsoids for two cooperating underwater vehicles with on-board manipulators

This paper introduces the manipulability and maneuverability ellipsoids for two underwater vehicles with on-board manipulators cooperating to carry a common rigid object. The forward kinematics problem for the system formed by the two underwater vehicle-manipulator mechanisms and the rigid load is studied in details. The assignment of the coordinate frames and the selection of a set of generalized coordinates to describe the system configuration are discussed. The pseudovelocities are introduced in order to incorporate the kinematic constraint equations into the kinematic velocity relations. A kinematic model is formulated for the system to be used for defining the manipulability and maneuverability ellipsoids.