#service robot

"UHAM will provide the robot TASER that will be used only in the initial developmental activities of Robot-Era. TASER is the main research platform of group TAMS from UHAM. It is mainly used for delivery tasks in home and office environments with its sub-tasks like human interaction, localization, object detection and grasping. The robot system features a mobile platform with differential drive and wheel encoders, two laser range finders and is controlled by an industrial computer PC. Different sensor and actuator systems as well as control strategies can be tested with the robot platform." – Robot-Era Prototypes and Experimental Platforms.

"We show several docking tests of our Scitos G3 robot as part of longterm trials in the CompanionAble project. The robot autonomously drives to a place in front of the docking station. Afterwards, its navigation software switches seamlessly into docking mode, where the robot localizes itself in front of the docking station using a checkerboard pattern that is tracked by a webcam in the rear of the robot. While driving backward, the robot follows an alignment trajectory that perfectly aligns the robot's charging connector with a docking plug that is mounted on the docking station. Although the docking plug is slightly flexible, the precision of the docking alignment must be within 2 centimeters, which is quite challenging for a robot of the given size and weight and with restricted free space in front of the docking station. The navigation software is able to detect if the robot cannot reach the station with the required precision, e.g. when the initial pose of the robot is too far away from the docking station due to localization errors. In this case it performs a correction movement to achieve a better alignment as shown in the test runs #2 and #3. Using this failsafe docking technique the robot is able to operate fully autonomously around the clock without need of intervention in our longterm trials." – Vision-Guided Inch-Perfect Docking of an Autonomous Robot.

"The length of the arm and its mounting position on the mobile base enable the manipulator to sweep the floor in its elbow-down configuration, and reach a typical counter-top level with its elbow-up configuration. An object positioned in a volume of approximately 30cm x 50cm x 120cm located at a distance 30cm from the mobile base can be reached by the arm with sufficient dexterity to permit delicate and precise actions. The gripper actuator is located next to the actuator of the wrist pitch, so that the fingers can grasp an object with their internal surfaces as well as with their external surfaces. This feature allows the use of different finger profiles, suited for holding objects of different shapes and dimensions. The key element of the manipulator is the gear motor assembly powering each joint. This assembly is a modular configuration that can be scaled according to the design needs. The original design was developed for the Rocky 7 Mars Rover." – Paolo Fiorini et al, Health Care Robotics A Progress Report.