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.
@article{arxiv.2506.13198,
title = {Equilibrium-Driven Smooth Separation and Navigation of Marsupial Robotic Systems},
author = {Bin-Bin Hu and Bayu Jayawardhana and Ming Cao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.13198},
year = {2025}
}