Mobile manipulation using NASA's Robonaut

The Johnson Space Center has developed a new mobile manipulation system with the combination of a Robonaut upper body mounted onto a Segway mobile base. The objective is to study a fluid and coordinated control of dexterous limbs on a mobile robot. The system has been demonstrated interacting with p...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ambrose, R.O., Savely, R.T., Goza, S.M., Strawser, P., Diftler, M.A., Spain, I., Radford, N.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Applied sciences
Collaboration
Computer science
control theory
systems
Control theory. Systems
Elevators
Exact sciences and technology
Fabrics
Gears
Humans
Mobile robots
NASA
Orbital robotics
Robot kinematics
Robotics
Wire
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Summary:The Johnson Space Center has developed a new mobile manipulation system with the combination of a Robonaut upper body mounted onto a Segway mobile base. The objective is to study a fluid and coordinated control of dexterous limbs on a mobile robot. The system has been demonstrated interacting with people, tools, and urban interfaces built for humans. Human interactions have included manually exchanging objects with humans, following people, and tracking people with hand held objects such as flashlights. Like other configurations of the Robonaut family, the upper body provides dexterity for using tools such as wire cutters, shovels, space flight gear, and handling flexible tethers and fabrics. The Segway base is a custom version called the Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) built for DARPA, and provided to NASA for this collaborative effort. The RMP's active balance gives Robonaut a relatively small footprint for its height, allowing it to pass through doors and elevators built for humans, and use wheelchair accessible ramps and lifts. Lessons learned from this development are presented to improve the design of future mobile manipulation systems, and the Segway base provides mobility to Robonaut for Earth based testing.
ISSN:1050-4729
2577-087X
DOI:10.1109/ROBOT.2004.1308134