Maintaining the Level of a Payload carried by Multi-Robot System on Irregular Surface

TL;DR

This paper presents a multi-robot system with a combined open-loop and PID control approach to maintain payload orientation on unknown, uneven terrains, demonstrated through simulations.

Contribution

Introduces a novel multi-robot payload transport system with a combined control strategy for unknown terrains, without terrain assumptions.

Findings

Effective payload orientation maintenance demonstrated in simulations.

System adaptable to various complex terrains.

Control approach ensures payload stability on uneven surfaces.

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a multi robot payload transport system to carry payloads through an environment of unknown and uneven inclinations while maintaining the desired orientation of the payload. For this task, we used custom built robots with a linear actuator (pistons) mounted on top of each robot. The system continuously monitors the payload's orientation and computes the required piston height of each robot to maintain the desired orientation of the payload. In this work, we propose an open loop controller coupled with a closed loop PID controller to achieve the goal. As our modelling makes no assumptions on the type of terrain, the system can work on any unknown and uneven terrains and inclinations. We showcase the efficacy of our proposed controller by testing it on various simulated environments with varied and complex terrains.