Mobile Robot Manipulation System with a Reconfigurable Robotic Arm: Design and Experiment

Working in unknown environment has become a fundamental requirement of mobile robot manipulation system. This application scenarios require robots to have some basic capabilities, such as the fast and flexible locomotion, dexterous manipulation, and environmental interaction. However, most studies have only focus on just one of the aspects, which restricts the actual applications. This paper attempts to show a novel design of the mobile robot manipulation system with all above capabilities. The system consists of a mobile platform and a reconfigurable 7 degrees of freedom (DOF) robotic arm. The quadruped and wheeled locomotion is realized on the mobile platform. Different from traditional mobile robot manipulation system, a new type of reconfigurable connecting mechanism (RCM) is developed to realize the quick change the configurations and modules. Due to these designs, the system can adapt for different tasks. Besides, the hardware and software of the control system are introduced. Finally, the performances of the developed mobile robot manipulation system are validated by a series of experiments.