Robust Hierarchical Tracking Control of Vehicle-Manipulator Systems

For vehicle-manipulator systems (VMSs) to perform precise operations, a robust tracking control framework is required. Moreover, to exploit the platform's redundancy, it is desirable that the framework allows several tasks to be completed simultaneously. This work presents a robust hierarchical tracking controller for floating-base robots. In addition to providing uniform global asymptotic stability (UGAS) in free motion and allowing a total task dimension greater than the number of degrees of freedom (DoFs), the proposed controller includes a sliding mode effect and is proved to achieve UGAS even in the presence of bounded disturbances. Moreover, it is proved that uniform global ultimate boundedness (UGUB) is obtained if a continuous approximation of the sliding mode term is used. The stability results are proved mathematically, and are validated through simulations of an articulated intervention autonomous underwater vehicle (AIAUV).