An approach towards decentralized control of cooperating non-autonomous multiple robots

This paper introduces an event-based decentralized control scheme for the cooperation between multiple manipulators. This is in contrast to the common practice of using only centralized controls for such cooperation which, consequently, greatly limit the flexibility of robotic systems. The manipulators used in the present system are very simple with only two degrees of freedom, while even one of them is passive. Moreover these manipulators use very few and commonly available sensors only. Computer simulations indicated the applicability of the event-based decentralized control scheme for multi-manipulator cooperation, while real-life experimental implementation has proved that the proposed decentralized control scheme is fairly applicable for very simple and even under-actuated systems too. Hence, this work has opened new doors towards further research in this area. The proposed control scheme is expected to be equally applicable for any mobile or immobile multi-robotic system.