Mobile Manipulation and Mobility as Manipulation: Design and Algorithms of RoboSimian

Abstract

This article presents the hardware design and software algorithms of RoboSimian, a statically stable quadrupedal robot capable of both dexterous manipulation and versatile mobility in difficult terrain. The robot has generalized limbs and hands capable of mobility and manipulation, along with almost fully hemispherical 3D sensing with passive stereo cameras. The system is semi-autonomous, enabling low-bandwidth, high latency control operated from a standard laptop. Because limbs are used for mobility and manipulation, a single unified mobile manipulation planner is used to generate autonomous behaviors, including walking sitting, climbing, grasping, and manipulating. The remote operator interface is optimized to designate, parameterize, sequence, and preview behaviors, which are then executed by the robot. RoboSimian placed fifth in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC) Trials, demon-strating its ability to perform disaster recovery tasks in degraded human environments.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA603513

Entities

People

  • Alper Aydemir
  • Charles Bergh
  • James Borders
  • Jason Reid
  • Jeremy Ma
  • Matthew Frost
  • Max Bajracharya
  • Michael Hagman
  • Nicolas Hudson
  • Paul Hebert

Organizations

  • University of California, Santa Barbara

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Autonomy
  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Algorithms
  • Arm
  • Autonomous Systems
  • Cameras
  • Computer Vision
  • Computers
  • Control Systems
  • Detectors
  • Disasters
  • Inertial Navigation
  • Jet Propulsion
  • Motion Planning
  • Robotics
  • Robots
  • Standards
  • Stereo Cameras
  • Three Dimensional

Readers

  • Robotics and Automation.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML
  • AI & ML - Autonomous Systems
  • Autonomy