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arXiv · 2506.13198

Equilibrium-Driven Smooth Separation and Navigation of Marsupial Robotic Systems

Bin-Bin Hu·Bayu Jayawardhana·Ming Cao
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Abstract

In this paper, we propose an equilibrium-driven controller that enables a marsupial carrier-passenger robotic system to achieve smooth carrier-passenger separation and then to navigate the passenger robot toward a predetermined target point. Particularly, we design a potential gradient in the form of a cubic polynomial for the passenger's controller as a function of the carrier-passenger and carrier-target distances in the moving carrier's frame. This introduces multiple equilibrium points corresponding to the zero state of the error dynamic system during carrier-passenger separation. The change of equilibrium points is associated with the change in their attraction regions, enabling smooth carrier-passenger separation and afterwards seamless navigation toward the target. Finally, simulations demonstrate the effectiveness and adaptability of the proposed controller in environments containing obstacles.

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Bin-Bin Hu, Bayu Jayawardhana, Ming Cao. 2025-06-16. Equilibrium-Driven Smooth Separation and Navigation of Marsupial Robotic Systems. https://doi.org/10.1109/lcsys.2025.3578933

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