A Global Approach to Manipulability Optimisation for a Dual-Arm Manipulator

In this paper, we present a new approach to manipulability maximisation for a dual-arm manipulator, which takes into account the manipulability of the overall task. This method tries to overcome the drawbacks given by traditional approaches, which optimise the manipulability of the local configuration of the manipulator, but do not take into account the rest of the task, even though it is known a priori. In this way, it is possible to improve the average manipulability index over the task. The method is applied to a dual-arm system, wherein the task is expressed in terms of relative poses between the end-effectors. For this reason, the kinematic of the system is solved by means of the relative Jacobian.