Hybrid Hierarchical Statistical Control of Robotic Manipulators

Here we present a hybrid hierarchical statistical control approach for the control of robotic manipulators. The bimodal dynamic imaging system considered in this paper utilizes two robotic manipulators to move the source and detector imaging modules. As this system contains both continuous and discrete dynamics, hybrid system control techniques are applied. The robotic arms used in this research are comprised of compliant joints, which have been shown to introduce process noise into the system. To address this, a full-state feedback statistical controller is developed to minimize joint angle variations for the system. The statistical controllers for the two robot arms are then coordinated using a hierarchical controller. Finally, the feasibility of the hybrid hierarchical statistical controller is demonstrated with numerical simulations.