The use of mobile manipulator arms (often tele-operated) becomes today an issue of great importance, due to their application in soil demining, goods handling, polluted soil decontamination, teleexcavation, aerospace applications, etc. Usually these manipulator arms are mounted on automotive carriers. The use of wheeled carriers for these manipulators presents some advantages compared to tracked carriers, related to mobility, mechanical simplicity, etc. The kinematics and dynamics of both carrier and manipulator arm are coupled. An important number of parameters determine the final performance and stability of the wheeled manipulator: arm payload, arm sections lengths, masses and moments of inertia, vehicle mass, wheelbase, suspension parameters, tire characteristics, etc. This paper gives an overview of the main parameters involved in the issue as well as the most important relationships among them.
展开▼
