Scaling Cooperative Mobile Multi-Robot Systems for Object Handling

Cooperative Mobile Multi-Robot Systems (CMMRS) are supposed to enable more flexible handling systems but face challenges in scalability due to kinematic overdetermination. This paper presents a scalable control architecture using admittance control to mitigate said overdetermination. A Temporal Convolutional Network (TCN) for real-time force estimation serves to mitigate instabilities in the admittance controller that occur in rigid surface contact. Experimental validation with up to eight industrial robots demonstrates high tracking accuracy, with position errors below 2 mm and orientation errors around 10 mrad.