Purpose Managing archives using robots rather than people can considerably enhance efficiency, while need to modify the structure of archive shelves or installation tracks. This paper aims to develop a fully automated archive access robot without modification. Design/methodology/approach First, a mobile navigation chassis and a motion algorithm based on laser ranging and map matching are created for autonomous movement to any of the archives’ locations. Second, because the existing archives are stacked vertically, the bionic manipulator is made to mimic the movement of manual access to the archives, and it is attached to the robot arm’s end to access different layers of archives. In addition, an industrial camera is used to complete barcode identification of the archives and acquire data on their location and thickness. Finally, the archive bin is created to store archives. Findings The robot can move, identify and access multiple archival copies placed on floors 1–6 and 2–5 cm thick autonomously without modifying the archival repository or using auxiliary devices. Research limitations/implications The robot is currently able to navigate, identify and access files placed on different levels. In the future, the speed of the robot’s navigation and the movement of the robot arm could be even faster, while the level of visualization of the robot could be further improved and made more intelligent. Practical implications The archive access robot developed by the authors makes it possible for robots to manage archives instead of human, while being cheaper and easier to deploy than existing robots, and has already been tested in the archive storage room of the State Grid maintenance branch in Jiangsu, China, with better results. Social implications The all-in-one archive access robot can replace existing robotic access solutions, promote intelligent management of the archive industry and the construction of unmanned archive repositories and provide ideas for the development of robots for accessing book-like materials. Originality/value This study explores the use of robots to identify and access archives without changing archive shelves or installing auxiliary devices. In this way, the robot can be quickly applied to the storage room to improve the efficiency of archive management.

No abstract