• control
• decentralized
• hybrid
• manipulator

The objective of this thesis is to design, develop and test a decentralized control for the YouBot.
This robot is composed by an omnidirectional mobile platform on which a five – axis robot arm with a two – finger gripper is installed.
In the first step the YouBot arm’s performance is analysed and the problems are verified and mentioned by the community.
The stat of the art is assessed.
The available hardware and software is analysed, as well as the temporal performances, the responses of the system, the optimal sampling time and the torque characterization.
Subsequently the COM (center of mass) for each link, is estimated, through a least squares algorithm, and the gravity compensation is implemented.
After this a hybrid motion/force decentralized control based on Newton – Eulero dynamics is realized.
The control algorithm is tested in simulation and on the real Youbot Manipulator. The obtained results have been analyzed and discussed.