A mobile service robot for industrial applications

This paper addresses the challenge of introducing mobile robots in industrial applications, where changes in the working environment and diversification of tasks require flexibility, adaptability and in some cases basic reasoning capabilities. Classical industrial robots hardly permit to meet these requirements, so a new concept of service robots facing challenging industrial production system needs is proposed. The realization of such an autonomous agent is illustrated and described in details, focusing on mobility, environmental perception and manipulation capabilities. The result is a mobile service robot able to face changeable conditions as well as unexpected situations and different kinds of manipulation tasks in industrial environments. In this paper an implementation dedicated to household appliances production is described, but the results achieved can be easily extended to many industrial sectors, goods and electromechanical components where high levels of fle xibility and autonomy are needed.