MCROS: A Multimodal Collaborative Robot System for Human-Centered Tasks

Collaborative robots play a significant role in the Industry 5.0 revolution. In this work, we present the development of a new dual-arm all-terrain Multimodal Collaborative Robot System (MCROS), which has dynamic decision-making capabilities in addition to a physical capacity to be controlled and directed for human-centered tasks. MCROS consists of two UR10e collaborative robots, an all-terrain mobile base, a computing and control unit, and a set of multimodal sensory systems for human-robot interaction. These sensory systems include 3D LIDARs, Force-Torque sensors, 3D/security cameras, an inertial measurement unit, and a global position system. Such a design merits a broader range of applications for MCROS. The Robot Operating System is employed for MCROS programming and control, which enables MCROS to be an open-source agent to seamlessly integrate with other cyber-physical systems in different tasks. A specification discussion of MCROS and other existing systems is illustrated. We carry out several applications and analyze the results of MCROS in different real-world work contexts. The scalability of MCROS is also discussed.