Mobile Manipulation
The RSL develops mobile manipulation platforms for autonomous and collaborative operation in a variety of challenging environments. The goal is to combine compliant and torque-controlled manipulators that allow to shape interaction dynamics with the extended range of a mobile base. Using torque-controlled manipulators allows to shape the contact forces and to interact safely and dynamically with the environment, even in the presence of uncertainty. This is especially useful for unstructured environments, like construction sites, or for collaborative tasks (human-robot or robot-robot).
In our research we are focusing on utilizing the complete dynamics of the mobile robot to coordinate the arm-base motion and to control the interaction forces. We are integrating perception, localization, and mapping to let the robots understand their surroundings and enabling them to operate fully autonomous or with a high-level operator input. Such systems can be applied for many robotic application going beyond the classical factory production line, e.g. to perform automated robotic construction with material found at the construction site, for collaborative assembly tasks with human, or for inspection and operation of remote facilities.
