Robot World: Mobile Manipulators

October 2012

SKKU and Yujin Robotics

They were demonstrating HomeMate, a “Cognitive Consumer Robot” designed to be an assistant in the home.
The robot has a 7 DOF arm, a webcam like a cyclops eye, dual stereo pairs in the chest, and a 2D LiDAR and ultrasonic sensors in the base.

The design of the arm is novel because it doesn’t have a roll axis at the shoulder, like similar robots. Instead the 7th degree-of-freedom is a linear actuator that moves the entire shoulder (the yaw joint) up and down. This would allow the robot to both pick-up objects from the floor and place objects on top of a bookshelf.

This robot is part of the KORUS Tech project and was designed by ISRI (Intelligent Systems Research Institute) at SKKU (SungKyunKwan University) in collaboration with Yujin Robot Co. Ltd. and Bonavison Inc.

Update:
Yujin Robotics has put some code online:
github.com/yujinrobot/korus/

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An earlier version of the robot
can be seen here, with a
Bumblebee stereo camera
and depth sensor.

Video 1:
A live demo showing the robot grasping a container
from one table, navigating autonomously, attempting
to fill the container from a candy machine, and then
attempting to place the container on a different table.
The robot then stops due to a software glitch.

KIST (Korea Institute of Science and Technology)

They were presenting CIROS v3.0, which is a dual-arm robot designed for service tasks in the home developed by the CIR (Center for Intelligent Robotics) at KIST.
They had one of the most impressive live demos where the robot was using a knife to prepare a salad.

The robot has dual 7-DOF arms and another 2-DOF in the torso (forward/back and up/down). The robot’s head is packed full of cameras, including a stereo pair and Kinect depth sensor, with more cameras in the hands for grasping. The base has omni-directional wheels, two Hukuyo 2D LiDARs and multiple ultrasonic sensors.

The CIROS robot uses hands from the HUBO robot (hubolab.kaist.ac.kr/p_hubohand/) that were modified with a small plate near the thumb, to help with grasping.

Website: irobotics.re.kr/eng_sub1_3/

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Brochure (in Korean)

Fig. 20:
An earlier version of the
robot, called CIROS v2.0

Video 2:
A live demo showing the
robot preparing a salad.

Video 3:
This demo compilation shows the robot
communicating with a human, opening
a fridge and navigating in a room.