Simon Bøgh

Autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM): past, present and future

– The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the interdisciplinary research field, autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM), with an emphasis on physical implementations and applications., – Following an introduction to AIMM, this paper investigates the missing links and gaps between the research and developments efforts and the real‐world application requirements, in order to bring the AIMM technology from laboratories to manufacturing environments. The investigation is based on 12 general application requirements for robotics: sustainability, configuration, adaptation, autonomy, positioning, manipulation and grasping, robot‐robot interaction, human‐robot interaction, process quality, dependability, and physical properties., – The concise yet comprehensive review provides both researchers (academia) and practitioners (industry) with a quick and gentle overview of AIMM. Furthermore, the paper identifies key open issues and promising research directions to realize real‐world integration and maturation of the AIMM technology., – This paper reviews the interdisciplinary research field, autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM).

“Little Helper” — An Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulator Concept

This paper presents the concept “autonomous industrial mobile manipulation” (AIMM) based on the mobile manipulator “Little Helper” – an ongoing research project at Aalborg University, Denmark, concerning the development of an autonomous and flexible manufacturing assistant. The paper focuses on the contextual aspects and the working principles of AIMM. Furthermore, the paper deals with the design principles and overall hardware and software architectures of “Little Helper” from a functional and modular mechatronics point of view, in order to create a generic AIMM platform. The design challenges faced in the project is to integrate commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and dedicated highly integrated systems into an autonomous mobile manipulator system with the ability to perform diverse tasks in industrial environments. We propose an action based domain specific communication language for AIMM for routine and task definition, in order to lower the entry barriers for the users of the technology. To demonstrate the “Little Helper” concept a full-scale prototype has been built and different application examples carried out. Experiences and knowledge gained from this show promising results regarding industrial integration, exploitation and maturation of the AIMM technology.

Human-robot interface for instructing industrial tasks using kinesthetic teaching

Today, the manufacturing industries increasingly demand more flexible and agile production systems. This demand is also reflected onto the field of robotics, as the majority of robots in the industry today are bolted to the ground and dedicated to a specific task. An Autonomous Industrial Mobile Manipulator (AIMM) offers a higher level of hardware flexibility, but in order to benefit from this flexibility the demand for new approaches to operating and programming new tasks is inevitable. Research within this topic has proposed a task-level-programming, where robot programming is generalized into a selection of skills. This paper presents a human-robot interface based on task-level-programming and kinesthetic teaching, which was assessed by nine people of varying robotics experience. In evaluation of the tests several improvements to the HRI are proposed, while the underlying concept is found to simplify programming of industrial task and thus making this available to the production floor operator.

Intuitive task programming of stud welding robots for ship construction

Ship construction is a major industry worldwide, and many tasks have been automated. One task that is still solely carried out manually is welding of studs. This paper presents a semi-autonomous approach to robotic stud the welding with focus on the HRI (Human-Robot Interaction). The welding itself is carried out autonomously by an autonomous industrial mobile manipulator (AIMM). An intuitive interface is proposed for the AIMM to ensure safe and correct operation. The interface allows non-expert operators to program, verify, and reprogram the robots task on the manufacturing site. Task specific information is projected directly into object space as augmented reality using a projector mounted on the robot end-effector. Specifically, stud positions are shown on the ship wall before welding is initiated, and positions can be added, deleted, and moved using an IMU as pointing device. The contribution of this paper is an intuitive interface for on-site programming of stud welding robots; implemented in a skill-based task programming architecture. The system is designed and implemented, and proof-of-concept tests are presented.

Integration of Mobile Manipulators in an Industrial Production

Purpose – The purpose of this study has been to evaluate the technology of autonomous mobile manipulation in a real world industrial manufacturing environment. The objective has been to obtain experience in the integration with existing equipment and determine key challenges in maturing the technology to a level of readiness suitable for industry. Despite much research within the topic of industrial mobile manipulation, the technology has not yet found its way to the industry. To mature the technology to a level of readiness suitable for industry real-world experience is crucial. This paper reports from such a real-world industrial experiment with two mobile manipulators. Design/methodology/approach – In the experiment, autonomous industrial mobile manipulators are integrated into the actual manufacturing environment of the pump manufacturer Grundfos. The two robots together solve the task of producing rotors; a task constituted by several sub-tasks ranging from logistics to complex assembly. With a total...

Multiple part feeding: Real-world application for mobile manipulators

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present experience from a real‐world demonstration of autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM) based on the mobile manipulator “Little Helper” performing multiple part feeding at the pump manufacturer Grundfos A/S.Design/methodology/approach – The necessary AIMM technologies exist at a mature level – the reason that no mobile manipulators have yet been implemented in industrial environments, is that research in the right applications have not been carried out. The paper proposes a pragmatic approach consisting of: a commercial‐off‐the‐shelf (COTS) mobile manipulator system design (“Little Helper”), a suitable and comprehensive industrial application (multiple part feeding), and a general implementation concept for industrial environments (the “Bartender Concept”).Findings – Results from the three days of real‐world demonstration show that “Little Helper” is capable of successfully servicing four part feeders in three production cells using command signals ...

Modelling and Scheduling Autonomous Mobile Robot for a Real-World Industrial Application

Abstract The paper deals with a real-world implementation of an autonomous industrial mobile robot performing an industrial application at a pump manufacturing factory. In the implementation, the multi-criteria optimization problem of scheduling tasks of a mobile robot is taken into account. The paper proposes an approach composing of: a mobile robot system design (“Little Helper”), an appropriate and comprehensive industrial application (multiple-part feeding tasks), an implementation concept for industrial environments (the bartender concept), and a real-time heuristics integrated into Mission Planning and Control software to schedule the mobile robot in the industrial application. Results from the real-world implementation show that “Little Helper” is capable of successfully serving four part feeders in three production cells within a given planning horizon using the best schedule generated from the realtime heuristics. The results also demonstrated that the proposed real-time heuristics is capable of finding the best schedule in online production mode.

Task space HRI for cooperative mobile robots in fit-out operations inside ship superstructures

In the rising area of close human-robot collaboration in industrial scenarios, the human operator must be able to easily understand the intent of and data from the robot. Shipbuilding environments exhibit unique features, which make deployment of mobile robots both challenging, relevant, and interesting. One task that is still solely carried out manually today due to its complexity and high need for mobility is the fit-out operation stud welding. This paper presents the latest state-of-the-art developments in human-robot interaction (HRI) for robotic stud welding in large semi-structured manufacturing spaces. The welding itself is carried out autonomously by an autonomous industrial mobile manipulator (AIMM). A novel HRI is proposed, which employs projection mapping and an IMU device to enable intuitive and natural interaction with the robot. Task specific information is projected directly into task space as augmented reality using a projector mounted on the robot end-effector. The IMU device enables non-expert operators to program, verify, and reprogram the robots task on-site in a ship superstructure. The usability of the system is tested in an extensive user test. It is concluded that non-experts after a short introduction are able to both modify a previous task and instruct and a new task using on average 1:01 and 1:16 minutes. Finally, the HRI has been implemented on a prototype robot and tested in an actual shipyard facility. The precision of the system, including operator inaccuracy, was evaluated to have a standard deviation of 3.6mm.