Collaborative mobile industrial manipulator: A review of system architecture and applications

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive review of the development of Collaborative Mobile Industrial Manipulator (CMIM), which is currently in high demand. Such a review is necessary to have an overall understanding about CMIM advanced technology. This is the first review to combine the system architecture and application which is necessary in order to gain a full understanding of the system. The classical framework of CMIM is firstly discussed, including hardware and software. Subsystems that are typically involved in hardware such as mobile platform, manipulator, end-effector and sensors are presented. With regards to software, planner, controller, perception, interaction and so on are also described. Following this, the common applications (logistics, manufacturing and assembly) in industry are surveyed. Finally, the trends are predicted and issues are indicated as references for CMIM researchers. Specifically, more research is needed in the areas of interaction, fully autonomous control, coordination and standards. Besides, experiments in real environment would be performed more and novel collaborative robotic systems would be proposed in future. Additionally, some advanced technology in other areas would also be applied into the system. In all, the system would become more intelligent, collaborative and autonomous.

A General Mobile Manipulator Automation Framework for Flexible Manufacturing in Hostile Industrial Environments

“…Research into mobile manipulators has a long history, dating back to the last century (Khatib et al, 1996;Mason et al, 1999;Yamamoto and Yun, 1992). The most recent surveys (Ramasubramanian et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2019a) give an explicit progress overview of the mobile manipulator's hardware system, software system and the new applications. One of the interesting advanced technique is mobile manipulator process automation because it requires the robot to autonomously reproduce the work taught by humans.…”

“…Mobile manipulators (def: a mobile platform carrying a robot arm) have attracted much interest in universities and industry because of the combination of flexible locomotion and dexterous manipulation (Ramasubramanian et al, 2022;Yang et al, 2019a). A mobile manipulator is able to undertake multiple different industrial tasks in a large workspace (rather than at a fixed work station), and can be widely used in many flexible manufacturing tasks, such as quality inspection in factories, workpiece loading and unloading in workshops, and painting.…”

3D printed passive end-effector for industrial collaborative robotic arms

“…Generally, end-effectors are complex and expensive active systems composed of several components and actuated by different energy sources. 5–8 Some novel end-effectors have a complex actuation and use unconventional materials. 9–12 These systems are usually hardly scalable and not suitable for small collaborative manipulators due to the number of components such as sensors and actuators.…”

Inverse kinematics for cooperative mobile manipulators based on self-adaptive differential evolution

“…Dual-arm systems are commonly used to perform complex cooperative tasks such as human-like tasks in domestic and industrial environments (Yang et al, 2019). However, the cooperative tasks for dual-arm systems are limited by the workspace provided by the robot manipulators.…”