Predictive End-Effector Control for Trajectory Tracking with Obstacle Avoidance on a Mobile Manipulator

This paper presents a predictive control approach for nonholonomic mobile manipulators that simultaneously ensures precise end-effector trajectory tracking and proactive obstacle avoidance. The proposed method begins with constructing a redundant kinematic model that coordinates all joints through the generalized Jacobian matrix. A model predictive control (MPC) scheme is subsequently developed to achieve millimeter-level end-effector tracking accuracy under ideal conditions. Safety-Critical constraints are integrated into the MPC controller via control barrier functions (CBF), which enforce collision avoidance by predicting and preventing potential violations of minimum safety distances. This integrated approach enables the mobile platform to effectively navigate around obstacles while accurately tracking the end-effector trajectory. Finally, the effectiveness of the coordinated control method is demonstrated through simulations.