Intelligent Mobile Manipulators in Industrial Applications:Experiences and Challenges

Abstract

This paper describes how industrial applications were targeted and successfully implemented by robotic manipulators that have been developed from studies in embodied artificial intelligent systems. The goal was to design mobile, flexible and self-learning manipulators that allow to perform multiple tasks with very short preparation time, a reasonable working speed and, at the same time, in a human-like manner. The advantages and disadvantages of these solutions compared to traditional industrial robot applications had to be considered continuously to concentrate on the right market segments, applications and customers. Thus, in addition to develop the appropriate requirements of real-time executions, risk analyses and usability, studies were established and implemented in collaboration with scientists, integrators and end customers. Acceptance, impacts of the revolution in personal intelligent robotics as well as challenges to overcome in the future are discussed.

Position-force control of mobile manipulator – nonadaptive and adaptive case

“…In the adaptive case, for error e 1 and e 2 , which are related to platform, there is only a small difference in comparison to nonadaptive case. For e 3 we can observe slower convergence -it means, that adaptive version needs more time to converge to 0. It is obvious and it results from theory: proofs have shown that the nonadaptive control law guarantees exponentially fast convergence to 0 and the adaptive case is only asymptotically convergent to 0.…”

“…These constraints act on the system through forces f n which should always fulfil equation (3). According to d'Alembert principle [5], forces resulting from constraints, can be expressed as…”

“…This is caused by wide variety of tasks which they can perform, from manipulation and transportation in different areas (both home and industrial environment), through robots performing machining operations, to specialized rescue platforms [3]. Many of this applications require not only precise position control but also some kind of a force control [12].…”

Integration of mobile manipulators in an industrial production

“…We found that much research has gone into evolving the various aspects and capabilities of the mobile manipulator. Several researchers have conducted experiments with industrial components in industrial-like settings (Stopp et al, 2002;Jamisola et al, 2002;Früh et al, 2007;Hamner et al, 2010;Stolt et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011). However, despite the large amount of research and the industrial needs and interest in the area, there are only few examples of implementation of mobile manipulators in real manufacturing environments (Datta et al, 2008;Katz et al, 2006;Helms et al, 2002;Hentout et al, 2010;Hvilshøj et al, 2012a).…”