Challenges and Solutions for Autonomous Robotic Mobile Manipulation for Outdoor Sample Collection

In refinery, petrochemical, and chemical plants, process technicians collect uncontaminated samples to be analyzed in the quality control laboratory all time and all weather. This traditionally manual operation not only exposes the process technicians to hazardous chemicals, but also imposes an economical burden on the management. The recent development in mobile manipulation provides an opportunity to fully automate the operation of sample collection. This paper reviewed the various challenges in sample collection in terms of navigation of the mobile platform and manipulation of the robotic arm from four aspects, namely mobile robot positioning/attitude using global navigation satellite system (GNSS), vision-based navigation and visual servoing, robotic manipulation, mobile robot path planning and control. This paper further proposed solutions to these challenges and pointed the main direction of development in mobile manipulation

Service Robots in Catering Applications: A Review and Future Challenges.

“Hello, I’m the TERMINATOR, and I’ll be your server today”. Diners might soon be feeling this greeting, with Optimus Prime in the kitchen and Wall-E then sending your order to C-3PO. In our daily lives, a version of that future is already showing up. Robotics companies are designing robots to handle tasks, including serving, interacting, collaborating, and helping. These service robots are intended to coexist with humans and engage in relationships that lead them to a better quality of life in our society. Their constant evolution and the arising of new challenges lead to an update of the existing systems. This update provides a generic vision of two questions: the advance of service robots, and more importantly, how these robots are applied in society (professional and personal) based on the market application. In this update, a new category is proposed: catering robotics. This proposal is based on the technological advances that generate new multidisciplinary application fields and challenges. Waiter robots is an example of the catering robotics. These robotic platforms might have social capacities to interact with the consumer and other robots, and at the same time, might have physical skills to perform complex tasks in professional environments such as restaurants. This paper explains the guidelines to develop a waiter robot, considering aspects such as architecture, interaction, planning, and executionpost-print13305 K

Dynamaid, čovjekoliki robot za istraživanje uslužnih djelatnosti u kućanstvima

Domestic tasks require three main skills from autonomous robots: robust navigation, object manipulation, and intuitive communication with the users. Most robot platforms, however, support only one or two of the above skills. In this paper we present Dynamaid, a robot platform for research on domestic service applications. For robust navigation, Dynamaid has a base with four individually steerable differential wheel pairs, which allow omnidirectional motion. For mobile manipulation, Dynamaid is additionally equipped with two anthropomorphic arms that include a gripper, and with a trunk that can be lifted as well as twisted. For intuitive multimodal communication, the robot has a microphone, stereo cameras, and a movable head. Its humanoid upper body supports natural interaction. It can perceive persons in its environment, recognize and synthesize speech. We developed software for the tests of the RoboCup@Home competitions, which serve as benchmarks for domestic service robots. With Dynamaid and our communication robot Robotinho, our team Nimbro@Home took part in the RoboCup German Open 2009 and RoboCup 2009 competitions in which we came in second and third, respectively. We also won the innovation award for innovative robot design, empathic behaviors, and robot-robot cooperation.Tri glavne vještine koje se nameću autonomnim robotima pri obavljanju kućanskih zadataka su: robusna navigacija, manipulacija objektima te intuitivna komunikacija s korisnicima. Većina robotskih platformi podržava samo jednu ili dvije od navedenih vještina. U ovome se članku predstavlja robotska platforma Dynamaid za istraživanje uslužnih djelatnosti u kućanstvima. U svrhu robusne navigacije, Dynamaid ima bazu s četiri zasebno upravljiva diferencijalna pogona, što omogućava svesmjerno gibanje. U svrhu manipulacije, Dynamaid je dodatno opremljen s dvije antropomorfne robotske ruke s hvataljkom te tijelom koje se može zakretati i dizati. Za intuitivnu višenamjensku komunikaciju, robot sadrži mikrofon, stereo kameru te pokretnu glavu. Njegovo čovjekoliko tijelo podržava prirodnu interakciju. Robot ima sposobnost uočavanja ljudi u svom okruženju, prepoznavanja i sinteze govora. Razvijen je software za sudjelovanje na RoboCup@Home natjecanjima, koja služe kao referenta mjera za kućanske uslužne robote. Naša grupa, Nimbro@Home, sudjelovala je s Dynamaidom i našim robotom za komunikaciju, Robotinhom, na natjecanjima RoboCup German Open 2009 i RoboCup 2009, gdje smo osvojili drugo i treće mjesto. Također smo dobili nagradu za inovativan dizajn robota, empatičko ponašanje te robot-robot suradnju

The DESIRE Service Robotics Initiative

We present some advanced hardware units and an appropriate component based SW architecture for DESIRE. As an example we describe the integration of a enhanced AI task planner which allows for higher flexibility and dependability during complex task execution