Implementation of Sensors and Control Paradigm for a Hybrid Mobile Robot Manipulator for Search and Rescue Operations

This paper presents the control paradigm and embedded sensors for a mobile robot manipulator whereby the mobile platform and manipulator arm are designed as one entity to support both locomotion and manipulation simultaneously and interchangeably in several configuration modes. Along with the description of the novel design architecture, we developed, constructed and tested a novel paradigm for on-board RF data communication among robot's joints. This paper also describes the sensor and camera layout and their implementation in the mobile robot manipulator. A modular and extensible power source system design with major key elements that allow for easy reconfiguration and expansion was also developed, implemented and tested for the hybrid mobile robot manipulator.