Reconfiguration of the Mobile Manipulator under the

Failure of Joint Actuator

R.V. Ram P. M. Pathak
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Department Department
Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee
Roorkee Roorkee
Uttarakhand, India Uttarakhand, India
vrayankula@me.iitr.ac.in pushpfme@iitr.ac.in

S.J. Junco
Universidad Nacional de Rosario
Rosario
Santa Fe, Argentina
sjunco@fceia.edu.ar
ABSTRACT major kinds of the mobile robots used for development
of MM. A MM may be built by assembling the
Reconfiguration of a mobile manipulator is undertaken manipulator arm with either type of mobile base. The
in this work. A three wheeled omnidirectional mobile workspace expansion of the manipulator is made
robot mounted with a five degree of freedom possible by mounting the manipulator arm over the
manipulator has been considered. The bond graph model mobile base. MM has the advantages of singularity
of the mobile manipulator is developed using the avoidance and obstacle avoidance due to its base
obtained kinematic relations. The end-effector of the mobility. However, it also poses great challenge of
manipulator has to track a given reference trajectory, dynamics interaction and coordination between the base
assuming the trajectory is in the workspace of the and the manipulator [2].
manipulator. A conventional PID control is applied to
ensure that the end-effector to follows the reference Control of MM is a highly challenging task and many
trajectory. Subsequently, the reconfiguration efforts are made towards developing control algorithms.
methodology of simultaneous actuation of mobile base Seraji proposed an on-line control algorithm for
and manipulator has been proposed when one of the configuration control of manipulator arm [3]. Zhong
joint actuator of the manipulator was failed. et.al. presented an adaptive back stepping control
strategy with fuzzy compensator o for control of MM in
Author Keywords: the presence of uncertainty and dynamic interactions
mobile manipulator, bond graph, trajectory control, [4]. Watanebe et.al. discussed complete modeling and
reconfiguration. analysis of omnidirectional MM and presented
computer torque control and resolved acceleration
I. INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND control [5]. Tracking control of Omni wheeled mobile
manipulator using sliding mode control is presented in
Fixed base robot manipulators are already well [6]. This work considered effect of friction and slipping
established in many factories. Mobile manipulator is a of wheels in modeling of MM.
recently developed system and it is gaining attention of
research community and industries. Mobile manipulator Bond graph is a formalism for modeling of
(MM) is a combination of a manipulator arm and mobile physical systems [7], and this formalism could give the
base. Non-holonomic mobile robots and equations of the system in algorithmic fashion [8]. Bond
omnidirectional wheeled mobile robots [1] are the two graph modeling of robotics system [9] fetches a great
advantage due its physical modeling nature, and the
ICBGM’2018 (SummerSim 18), July 9-12, same formalism is used for modeling in this work.
Bordeaux, France
©2018 Society for Modeling & Simulation
International (SCS)
This paper focuses on reconfiguration of the MM in the
case of joint actuator failure. In this work, a three-
wheeled omnidirectional mobile robot with a five degree
of freedom on board manipulator arm has been
considered. Trajectory control of the end-effector of the
MM is attained with Jacobian transpose scheme.

II MODLLING OF MOBILE MANIPULATOR

The physical model of the MM shown in Figure-1

consists of two parts viz. three omni-directional wheeled
mobile base and 5-DOF manipulator arm. The modeling
of the MM is done by combining the modeling of the
mobile base and manipulator arm. The following
assumptions are made in the modeling of the MM for
simplification: Figure 1. Schematic diagram of MM
1. The body of the mobile base and each link of
manipulator arm are sufficiently rigid. The inverse relation becomes,
2. Centre of gravity of the mobile base is at its geometric
Vx , w   2 sin  2 sin( ) 2 sin( )  
center and the mass center of each link is at the center of  1
V   2 cos( ) 2 cos( ) 2 cos( )   
1 2
r
 y ,w  3  2 
link. (2)
  3 
1 2
3. The three wheels of mobile are placed exactly at 120˚.  1
   1 1
4. The wheels can move in both forward and backward  L L L 
direction.
5. Viscous friction is only considered at manipulator 2. Bond graph model of mobile base
joints and wheels of mobile base. Based on the kinematic relations given in Equation (1)
the bond graph model is constructed. The dynamic
A. Mobile base model of the mobile base is obtained by appending the
inertias of the wheel and mobile base inertia at proper
1. Kinematics of mobile base one junctions as shown in Figure 3. Here, Iw is the wheel
Modeling of the mobile base could be done, by inertia and Mv and Iv are mass and inertia of the mobile
first obtaining the kinematic relations. Let, 𝜓̇1 𝜓̇2 and base about a vertical axis passing through CG
𝜓̇3 are the angular velocities of the wheels 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Full detail of the modeling are given in
respectively. Similarly, Vx,w ,Vy,w and 𝜙̇ are the CM [10].
velocities of the mobile base in global X, Y directions
and rotational velocity about Z direction respectively. L Vy, w
and r are the radii of the base and wheel respectively.
The velocity diagram of mobile base shown in Figure-2
depicts the various terminology used. For an ̇
̇
omnidirectional wheel mobile robot, the Equation (1) Wheel-2
̇ Wheel-1
gives the relation between wheel angular velocities and
velocities of the CM of the base. 2 ϕ 1
120 O
{G} Vx,w
 1    sin  cos  L  Vx , w 
 2   1  sin(1 )  cos(1 ) L  Vy , w  (1)
  r  sin( )  cos( ) L   
 3  2 2    
  Wheel-3
where, 1    and 2   ̇
3 3
Figure 2. Velocity diagram of MB

B. Modeling of Five degree of freedom manipulator

1. Kinematics of manipulator arm

 Figure 3. Bond graph model of mobile base
The five degree of freedom manipulator arm of the MM Velocity propagation
is as shown in Figure-1 Let, L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5 are the The angular velocity propagation of the link from link i-
link lengths and and are the joint angles 1 to i with reference to frame i is
of the manipulator. Coordinate frames have been
i 1 W i i 1
( i )  i 1R ( i 1 )  ( i )
assigned to the joints and accordingly the kinematics of i W i
(5)
the manipulator arm are defined by the DH parameters
[11] as given in the Table-1.
where  is the angular velocity of the link.
The rotary transformation matrix between link i-1 and i The linear velocity propagation of the link from link i-1
(for1≤ i≤6) is given by to i with reference to frame W is given by

i 1 i 1 i 1 W
( Vi )  ( Vi 1 )  i 1R [  ( Pmi ×)][ ( i 1 )]
W W W W W
 cos  i  sin  i 0  (6)
i 1
R   cos  sin  cos  cos   sin   (3)
i
 sin  i 1 sin  i sin  i 1 cos  i cos  i 1 
 i 1 i i 1 i i 1  where V represents the linear velocity of link and Pm is
the skew-symmetric matrix form (Craig 2005) of the
In addition, the translation vector is vector P. The velocity of the end-effector in world frame
becomes,
i 1
ai1 di sin i 1 di cos i 1 
T
i P (4)
( V6 )  ( V5 )  5 R[  ( Pm6 )][ ( 5 )]
W W W W W 5 5 5 W
(7)
These matrices are highly useful for formulating the
velocity transformation from one link to next link. The velocity of the end-effector in X, Y, and Z direction
in world frame W is written as,
Appendix gives the 𝑖−1𝑖𝑅 and 𝑖−1𝑖𝑃 matrices of various
frames.
X tip  Vx , w  0.5(( L4  L5 )(  cos(  1234 )(  1234 )

S.N. ai-1 i-1 di i  cos(  1   234 )(  1   234 ))

1 0 0 L1 1  L3 (sin(  123 )(  123 )
(8)
2 0 90° 0 
 sin(  1   23 )(  1   23 ))
3 L2 0 0 
4 L3 0 0   L2 (sin(  12 )(  12 )
5 -90° 0 0   sin(  1   2 )(  1   2 )))
6 0 0 L4+ L5 0
Table-1: DH parameters of manipulator arm
Ytip  Vy , w  0.5(( L4  L5 )(  sin(  1234 )(  1234 )
 sin(  1   234 )(  1   234 ))
 L3 (cos(  123 )(  123 )
(9)
 cos(  1   23 )(  1   23 ))
 L2 (cos(  12 )(  12 )
 cos(  1   2 )(  1   2 )))
Z tip  ( L4  L5 ) sin  234 234  L3 cos  23 23
(10)
 L3 cos  2 2
2. Bond graph model of manipulator arm
The bond graph model of the manipulator arm could be
seen from the Figure-4. The joints are actuated by
external torques represented by SE elements. The joint
resistance is modeled using the R element. Each 1
junction in the model shown represent the angular
velocity of each joint. The submodel AVP of link
represent the propagation of the angular velocity of a
link from one link to next link following the equation
(3). In this submodel the angular velocity of the present
link is calculated as the sum of present link joint angular
velocity and angular velocity of the previous link. The
submodel LVP of link represents the propagation of the
Figure-4: Bond graph modeling of mobile manipulator
linear velocity vector of one link to the next. Following
the equation (4) this submodel calculates the linear
velocity of the present link using angular velocity of the
present link, rotational transformation matrix with
respect to previous link and linear velocity of the
previous link. The submodel EJS represent the bond
graph modelling of Euler Junction Structure (EJS). The
EJS is the angular dynamic model of the rigid body.
III. Trajectory control of MM
This work assumes that the task space is within the work
volume of the manipulator arm. Thence, the manipulator
arm itself can handle the desired trajectory without the
need for movement of the mobile base. Dynamic
interaction between manipulator arm and mobile base
causes movement (or disturbance) to the mobile base
without actuating its motors. The disturbance to base
movement leads to error in trajectory tracking. In order
to dissipate the base disturbance props are employed.
These props tightly hold the mobile base to the ground
to make the base unmoved. In the bond graph model,
these props are modeled as the forces, which can nullify
the dynamic interaction forces coming from the
manipulator arm.
Since, the mobile base is firmly held to the ground with
props the velocity of mobile base is zero. Thus, Vx,w =
Vy,w=𝜙̇=0. The equations (5) and (6) are rewritten as,
X tip  0.5(( L4  L5 )(  cos(  1234 )1234
Trajectory control of the end-effector of a robotic
 cos(  1   234 )(1   234 )) manipulator has been the vital research topic among
robotic community. Numerous trajectory control
 L3 (sin(  123 )123
(11) schemes emerged to offer solution to trajectory control.
 sin(  1   23 )(1   23 )) All these schemes could be broadly classified into two
categories namely inverse Jacobian scheme and
 L2 (sin(  12 )12 Jacobian transpose scheme. Jacobian transpose method
 sin(  1   2 )(1   2 ))) has been employed in this work. The most striking and
obvious feature of the Jacobian transpose scheme is
avoidance of singularity issue. Classical proportional
Ytip  0.5(( L4  L5 )(  sin(  1234 )1234 integral and derivative (PID) control has been used in
this Jacobian transpose scheme. Figure-5 schematic of
 sin(  1   234 )(1   234 ))
the Jacobian transposes strategy with PID control. Using
 L3 (cos(  123 )123 Jacobian [JMA] the manipulator arm velocities are
(12) converted into Cartesian velocities of the end-effector of
 cos(  1   23 )(1   23 )) the manipulator. The PID controller transforms the error
 L2 (cos(  12 )12 between actual end-effector velocity and reference
velocity into control force on tip, which is in turn
 cos(  1   2 )(1   2 ))) converted to torque on joints of the manipulator. In this
fashion manipulator arm is controlled to follow the
A. Jacobian reference trajectory.

The Jacobian matrix maps the joint velocities into B. Reference trajectory
velocity of end-effector in Cartesian space.
A cubic interpolation trajectory has been chosen as
 X tip Ytip Ztip   [ J MA ]1  2 3  4 5 
T T reference trajectory for the tip trajectory of MM.
(13)

 AX BX C X DX 0 (14)
3 2
X ref  A1t  B1t  C1t  D1
where, J MA   AY BY CY DY 0 3 2 (15)
 A B C D 0 Yref  A2t  B2t  C2t  D2
 Z Z Z Z  3 2 (16)
Z ref  A3t  B3t  C3t  D3
AX  ( L4  L5 ) cos(  1   234 )  BX
AY  ( L4  L5 ) sin(  1   234 )  BY The Equations (8), (9), and (10) give the reference tip
1 trajectory in X, Y and Z direction with time t as variable.
BX  L2 (  sin(  12 )  sin(  1   2 ))  C X Let, Pi (xi, yi, zi) and Pf (xf, yf, zf) are the given initial and
2 final positions of the trajectory of the tip. Therefore, D1
1 = xi, D2 = yi and D3 = zi. The reference velocities could
BY  L2 (cos(  12 )  cos(  1   2 ))  CY be written as,
2
1
CX  L3 (  sin(  123 )  sin(  1   23 ))  D X 2
X ref  3 A1t  2 B1t  C1 (17)
2
2
Yref  3 A2t  2 B2t  C2 (18)
1
CY  L3 (cos(  123 )  cos(  1   23 ))  DY
2 2
Z ref  3 A3t  2 B3t  C3 (19)
1
DX   ( L4  L5 )(cos(  1234 )  cos(  1   234 ))
2 By applying constraints position, initial velocity is zero
1 and final velocity is also zero at time tf, Ai, Bi and Ci (for
DY   ( L4  L5 )(sin(  1234 )  sin(  1   234 )) 1≤i≤ 3) can be obtained (Craig 2005).
2
AZ  0 BZ  L2 cos  2  CZ C. Simulation

CZ  L3 cos  23  DY Dynamic equations of the systems are derived from the

DZ  ( L4  L5 ) sin  234 bond graph modeling of the MM with Jacobian
transpose control. Simulations are performed for a
period 10seonds. The parameters of the simulation are
shown in Table-2. The simulation plots shown Figure-6
shows that the Jacobian transpose strategy could drive
the manipulator to track the given reference trajectory.
The errors in X and Y directions are quite negligible,
whereas the error in Z direction is not so.
Further, simulations are conducted for a fault in the
system. The fault in the joint-3 of the manipulator
caused the locking of the joint-3 after 6 seconds. The
locking one of the joints reduced the manipulator degree
of freedom to four. The reduction of the degree of
freedom causes deficiency in the dexterity of the
manipulator and work volume becomes shortened. The

Figure-5: Jacobian Transpose control of manipulator arm

Parameters Terminol Values with Parameters Terminolog Values with

ogy units y units
Manipulator link L1 0.2 m Mobile base mass Mv 10 kg
length
L2 0.7 m Inertia Jv 0.5 kg-m2
L3 0.9 m Radius L 0.2 m
L4 0.25 m Wheel radius r 0.05 m
L5 0.1 m Wheel inertia Iw 0.0004
Manipulator mass M1 2 kg Proportional gain Kp 5000
M2 4 kg Derivative gain Kd 50
M3 0.4 kg Integral gain Ki 50
M4 0.25 kg Wheel viscous friction R 0.05 N-s/m
M5 0.1 kg Manipulator arm friction Rj 0.01 N-s/m

Table-2: Parameters of simulation

simulation for trajectory tracking with joint failure after
6 seconds, of the MM are presented in Figure-7. These
simulations clearly reveal that, manipulator insufficient
dexterity and reduced work volume caused significant
errors.
(a)
(c)
Figure-6: Jacobian transpose control of trajectory in (a) X direction, (b) Y direction, (c) Z direction, and (d)
error in X, Y, and Z direction.
IV. RECONFIGURATION OF MM
It is observed from the previous section that failure of
the third joint causes significant error in the trajectory
tracking of the manipulator after 6 seconds. The locking
of joint-3 when it is failed reduces the work volume and
dexterity of the manipulator. In this section, a
reconfiguration scheme is proposed to reinstate the work
volume and dexterity to perform the desired task. This
reconfiguration scheme makes the mobile manipulator
fault tolerant for joint actuator failures. The mobile
manipulator possess inbuilt redundancy, which can be
exploited to overcome the faults occur due to failure of
the manipulator joint. The reconfiguration scheme is,
first the supporting props are removed to make the free
movement of the mobile base. Secondly, the
manipulator arm and mobile base are both
simultaneously controlled using combined Jacobian
transpose of the MM. The combined Jacobian transpose
control scheme has the advantage of dissipating the
(b)
(d)
dynamic interaction between manipulator arm and
mobile base. Whereas using a separate (or
decentralized) control for manipulator arm and mobile
base may not be able to take care of the dynamic
interactions, hence causing too high error in tip
trajectory.
Using equation (2) and equations (7), (8), and
(9), the velocity of the end-effector of the MM will be,
X 
 tip 
  2 3  4 5  1  2  3 
T
 Ytip   [ J MM ] 1
 
 Ztip 
(20)
 (a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure-7: Tip trajectory with failure of third joint after 6s in (a) X direction, (b) Y direction, (c) Z direction,
and (d) error in X, Y, and Z direction

where [JMM] is the combined Jacobian of the of the MM velocity of MM in world frame is the velocity of the
and it is defined as mobile base plus the tip velocity of the manipulator arm.
The PID controller converts the error between reference

 AX BX CX DX 0 EX FX GX  velocity and tip velocity in world frame into force on the
  end-effector. Now, the combined Jacobian transpose
J MM   AY BY CY DY 0 EY FY GY 
transforms the force on tip to torques on the joints of
 
A BZ CZ DZ 0 0 0 0  manipulator arm and torques on the wheels of the mobile
 Z 
base.
The elements of matrix [JMM] are given as
A. Simulation
r 2r r 2r
EX  AX  3 sin  , EY  AY  3 cos  ,
3L 3L Simulations are performed for the same reference
r r trajectory using the combined Jacobian transpose
2r 2r
FX  AX  3 sin 1 , FY  AY  3 cos 1 , control strategy. The result plots are shown in Figure 9.
3L 3L It is distinctly visible from Figure 9(a), (b), (c), and (d)
r 2r r 2r that the error in the tip trajectory has been reduced
GX  AX  3 sin 2 , GY  AY  3 cos 2 largely. Thus, the reconfiguration of the MM with
3L 3L
simultaneous actuation of mobile base and manipulator
The Figure-8 gives the schematic diagram of the arm could overcome the deficiency occurred in system
combined Jacobian transpose strategy for control of the due to failure of joint-3.
MM. Since the mobile base is also moving, the tip
 Figure-8: Combined Jacobian transpose control of MM

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure-9: Trajectory tracking of the mobile manipulator with reconfiguration in (a) X direction, (b) Y
direction, (c) Z direction and (d) error in X, Y and Z direction
 V. CONCLUSIONS
Bond graph model of a mobile manipulator has been
developed and a trajectory-tracking problem is
considered. In the first case, only manipulator was
actuated to control the trajectory using Jacobian
transpose strategy with PID control. Subsequently, a
fault is introduced during simulation by freezing the
third joint of the manipulator, hence it lead to error in
trajectory tracking. The reconfiguration scheme is
proposed as simultaneously driving both manipulator
arm and mobile base through combined Jacobian
transpose strategy. The proposed reconfiguration
methodology could overcome the error occurred due to
freezing of one of the manipulator joint.
9. Merzouki R, Samantaray A K, Pathak P M, and
Bouamama B O. 2012. Intelligent mechatronic
systems: modeling, control and diagnosis: Springer
Science & Business Media.
10. Ram R V, Pathak P M, and Junco S J. 2018.
"Trajectory Control of Mobile Manipulator in the
Presence of Base Disturbance." Simulation:
Transaction of The society for Modeling and
Simulation International in press.
11. Craig J J. 2005. Introduction to robotics:mechanics
and control. Vol. 3: Pearson/Prentice Hall Upper
Saddle River, NJ, USA.

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3 3
5. Watanabe K, Kazuya S, Kiyotaka I, and Yutaka K.    
2000. "Analysis and control for an omnidirectional  0 0 1   0 
mobile manipulator." Journal of Intelligent and
 cos 5  sin 5 0 0 
Robotic Systems 27 (1-2):3-20.
 0 1  
5R  5P  0
4 4
0
   
6. Viet TD, Phuc TD, Nguyen H, Hak KK, and Sang   sin 5  cos 5 0  0 
BK. 2012. "Tracking control of a three-wheeled
omnidirectional mobile manipulator system with 1 0 0   0 
   0 
6R  0 1 0 6P 
disturbance and friction." Journal of mechanical 5 5
science and technology 26 (7):2197-2211.    
0 0 1   L4  L5 
7. Karnopp D, Margolis D, and Rosenberg R. 2012.
System dynamics: modeling, simulation, and control
of mechatronic systems: John Wiley & Sons. ABOUT THE AUTHORS
8. Mukherjee A, Karmakar R, and Samantaray A K.
2006. Bond graph in modeling, simulation and fault RAYANKULA VITALRAM is presently a doctoral
identification: IK International Pvt Ltd. student in Department of Mechanical and Industrial
Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee.
He obtained his M.Tech in CAD/CAM and Robotics
from the same institute. His area of interests include
inverse kinematics, modeling and control of mobile
manipulator and bond graphs. His email address is
vrayankula@me.iitr.ac.in.

PUSHPARAJ MANI PATHAK is currently Associate

Professor at Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee,
India. He graduated from National Institute of
Technology Calicut, India in 1988 in Mechanical
Engineering. He completed his M. Tech in Solid
Mechanics and Design from Indian Institute of
Technology Kanpur in 1998. Later he was awarded the
PhD degree from IIT Kharagpur in 2005. His areas of
research are Robotics, Dynamics, Control, and Bond
Graph Modelling. He is serving in Mechanical and
Industrial Engineering Department, IIT Roorkee since
2006. He has co-authored one book on Intelligent
Mechatronic Systems: Modeling, Control and Diagnosis
published by Springer, London. He is a Member of
International Federation for the Promotion of
Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM) Technical
committee for Multi Body Dynamics. His email address
is pushpfme@iitr.ac.in.

SERGIO J JUNCO is currently a senior Professor in

the Departamento de Control, FCEIA, at the
Universidad Nacional de Rosario. He received the
degree of Electrical Engineer from the National
University of Rosario, Argentina in 1976. From 1976 to
1979, he worked on automation projects as an Electronic
Project Engineer at Acindar, a large private steel
company in Argentina. From 1979 to 1981, he was at the
Institute of Automatic Control of the University of
Hannover, Germany, with a scholarship from DAAD.
His research interests are in the areas of modeling,
simulation and control of continuous and hybrid
systems. Of special interest are the energy-based Bond-
Graph and Port-Hamiltonian formalisms for physical
systems modeling. His current R&D activities are in
modeling and control applications in the fields of
electrical machines, power electronics drives, robotics
and mechatronics in general, as well as in micro smart
grids with renewable energy sources and storage
devices. His email address is srgjunco@gmail.com.