Feedback motion control of a spatial double pendulum manipulator relying on swept laser based pose estimation

Abstract Spatial pose estimation devices for mobile and cable-suspended robots have been rapidly developed. The HTC Vive sensor, which operates with swept laser beams, has aroused many researchers’ interest. We present experiments with a double pendulum robot equipped with the HTC Vive Tracker. A linear feedback controller ensured the tracking of pre-defined end-effector trajectories of various speeds. The pose feedback of the controller was provided by the HTC Vive. As a reference, the realized trajectory was measured by the OptiTrack motion capture system. We report that the motion control of a spatial double pendulum robot can be achieved by using a linear feedback controller together with cable winch and fan actuators providing six independent inputs. The accuracy of the HTC Vive was proved to be sufficient for the feedback position control of indoor mobile robots. We report that the error strongly correlates with the linear/angular velocity, the acceleration and the jerk.