Kinematic Trajectory Following Control For Constrained Deformable Linear Objects

Deformable linear objects (DLOs) such as hoses, cables or wires are often a limiting factor in robotic manipulation. For an industrial robot control, their nonlinear dynamics combined with their large variations in material parameters make it challenging to handle. Therefore, DLOs are usually manipulated manually in the industry, offering a huge potential for automation. This paper contributes to the field of robotic handling of DLOs by presenting and evaluating a novel model based controller and observer concept which is based on a multibody simulation. The presented closed-loop framework of a kinematic trajectory following controller with an online point cloud processing observer is first evaluated separately in the simulation and then in an experiment, showing its potential for cable routing scenarios.