SyncMM - a reactive path planning and control framework for the mobile manipulator care-O-bot® 3

Recently, efforts of several companies seem to put real life applications on the verge of realization by providing complex service robots to a wider community. Still, the high complexity of such systems puts a limit to their usage - in a system-integrators' as well as a computational perspective. Modularization and encapsulation is one promising approach to handle this high complexity, but at the same time potentially limits the margin for optimization. To investigate this stress ratio in context with synchronous mobile manipulation (SyncMM) tasks a ROS-based framework was implemented on Care-O-bot® 3 which persistently builds on modular blocks that provide slim interfaces and encapsulate complexity. The approach investigated in this paper decomposes the problem into a feedback planning step within a reduced configuration space and a cascadation of a configuration controller and separate controllers for arm and mobile base. The mobile manipulation framework is evaluated experimentally on the Care-O-bot® 3 robot opening a door of a cupboard in a domestic environment.