A Dual-Arm Robot Cooperation Framework Based on a Nonlinear Model Predictive Cooperative Control

Dual-arm robots show better task adaptability but face more constraints than single-arm robots. Inspired by human cooperation options, a nonlinear model predictive cooperative control (NMPCC) coupled with a cooperative index is proposed in this article. By adjusting the cooperative index, dual-arm cooperation can be classified into four modes: tracking, motion synchronization, impedance, and force priority. Thus, the cooperation operation problem is converted to a multiobjective optimization problem. Then, a nonlinear model predictive solver coupled with the ACADO toolkit is designed to solve the multiobjective optimization problem, where the robotic torque control input can be calculated in real time (less than 1 ms). The motion synchronization, cooperative transportation, and human dual-arm robot interaction experiments were conducted on dual Franka panda robots. Experiments reveal that the NMPCC control coupled with the cooperative index is easy to apply in dual-arm robots and can adapt to different complex manipulation tasks.