Distributed Cooperative Transportation of an Elastic Object Using Omnidirectional Mobile Robots

Distributed Cooperative Transportation of an Elastic Object Using Omnidirectional Mobile Robots | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Distributed Cooperative Transportation of an Elastic Object Using Omnidirectional Mobile Robots Marius Fuchs, David Leprich, Mario Rosenfelder, Peter Eberhard This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9157105/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract This paper presents a novel framework for the cooperative transport of a highly elastic membrane using multiple omnidirectional mobile robots. Since model-based control approaches have enabled very versatile schemes for the transport of rigid bodies in previous works, this is also pursued for the transport of highly deformable objects, where two complementary object models are employed. First, to capture large deformations and geometrically nonlinear effects arising during transport, a data-driven surrogate model based on a neural network is employed to predict quasi-static pretensioning forces for desired membrane deformations resulting from different payloads. Since the surrogate model is trained on quasi-static equilibrium configurations, it cannot predict the transient membrane dynamics and is therefore unsuitable as a prediction model for feedback control. Instead, a simplified multibody model is integrated into a distributed model predictive control scheme (DMPC) to account for the dynamic aspects of cooperative transportation. The surrogate is trained exclusively on finite element simulation data and provides force setpoints in real-time, which are explicitly controlled within a cascaded control structure. The DMPC scheme coordinates the robots to both transport the tensioned membrane along a given reference path and exert the desired tensile forces. The proposed approach is validated experimentally using a custom-built robot platform transporting an elastic membrane along various paths with different payloads, demonstrating robust tracking performance and satisfactory agreement between desired and achieved object deformations. Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files Fig5a.mp4 Fig5b.mp4 Fig5c.mp4 Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 18 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 05 May, 2026 Reviews received at journal 23 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 07 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 07 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 22 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 20 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 18 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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