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Development of Smart Mobile Manipulator Controlled by a Single Windows PC Equipped with Real-Time Control Software

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Abstract

Despite significant advances in robotic technologies, few affordable robots for domestic applications are commercially available. This study aimed to develop an affordable yet practical mobile manipulator for use in household environments. The proposed mobile manipulator features a software-based real-time controller to control the motion of the manipulator and mobile base. The real-time controller was implemented on a single on-board Windows PC and can control the actuator and IO devices via EtherCAT communication. The major functionalities of the mobile manipulator include the pick-and-place of household objects and autonomous navigation within a domestic environment. For pick-and-place tasks, a deep neural network (DNN) was employed to recognize the object to pick up. For autonomous navigation, open-source ROS packages for SLAM and navigation were used along with the measurements from a LiDAR sensor and odometry. The feasibility of using the developed robot for domestic applications was experimentally evaluated.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Movensys, Inc, and the support is greatly appreciated. The work of Shinsuk Park was partially supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korean Government (MSIT) (NRF 2020R1A2C1014452)

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea

    Sunwoong Choi & Shinsuk Park

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  1. Sunwoong Choi
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  2. Shinsuk Park
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Correspondence to Shinsuk Park.

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Choi, S., Park, S. Development of Smart Mobile Manipulator Controlled by a Single Windows PC Equipped with Real-Time Control Software. Int. J. Precis. Eng. Manuf. 22, 1707–1717 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12541-021-00571-5

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