This research focuses on the control and motion planning algorithms for a new materials transport and manipulator system called the Modular Distributed Manipulator System (MDMS), which has applications ranging from flexible manufacturing to package handling. The MDMS comprises an array of actuators each of which can impart a directed force to an object resting upon it. This project develops testbed hardware and algorithms to coordinate the actuators to transport and manipulate objects. The theoretical contributions add to the existing literature on distributed manipulation, much of which addresses chip-scale actuators. The MDMS works on a macroscopic scale, where physical models are more tractable. In contrast to MEMS actuator arrays, where mass and friction are essentially ignored, the MDMS not only incorporates friction and mass, but also explicitly exploits them. This effort considers two primary operation modes: sensorless and sensor-based. Sensorless operation is easier to implement and analyze but does not provide the precision of sensor-based control. The MDMS also provides a testbed for evaluating distributed control strategies, and this research considers the tradeoff between centralized and decentralized control approaches. These algorithms will be demonstrated on an existing eighteen cell prototype. A larger, more advanced prototype will be developed to further test the concept.
