Distributed Recurrent Neural Networks for Cooperative Control of Manipulators: A Game-Theoretic Perspective

This paper considers cooperative kinematic control of multiple manipulators using distributed recurrent neural networks and provides a tractable way to extend existing results on individual manipulator control using recurrent neural networks to the scenario with the coordination of multiple manipulators. The problem is formulated as a constrained game, where energy consumptions for each manipulator, saturations of control input, and the topological constraints imposed by the communication graph are considered. An implicit form of the Nash equilibrium for the game is obtained by converting the problem into its dual space. Then, a distributed dynamic controller based on recurrent neural networks is devised to drive the system toward the desired Nash equilibrium to seek the optimal solution of the cooperative control. Global stability and solution optimality of the proposed neural networks are proved in the theory. Simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.