On Continuous Path Tasks for a 6-DOF Manipulator Mounted on a Nonholonomic Mobile Platform

This paper deals with kinematic control of a nonholonomic mobile manipulator along a predefined tool path or trajectory. We assume that both position and orientation of the end-effector are imposed between the initial and final locations. Considering this compound mechanical system, we have to cope with redundancy. The approach presented here uses additional tasks -or kinematic equations- that can be choosen depending on the tasks at hand. In particular two choices are proposed that allow to consider mainly the Jacobian of the manipulator for the analysis of singularities.