Whether reaching for a book out of a cluttered cabinet or pruning a bush in the backyard, a person’s arm frequently makes contact with objects during everyday tasks. Animals do it too, when foraging for food, for example.
Robots Reaching Through Clutter
Much in the same way, robots are now able to intelligently maneuver
within clutter, gently making contact with objects while accomplishing a
task. This new control method has wide applications, ranging from
robots for search-and-rescue operations to assistive robotics for people
with disabilities.
“Up until now, the dominant strategies for robot manipulation have
discouraged contact between the robot’s arm and the world,” said Charlie
Kemp, lead researcher and associate professor in the Coulter Department
of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
“Instead of avoiding contact, our approach enables the arm to make
contact with objects, people and the rest of the robot while keeping
forces low.”
Kemp, director of Georgia Tech’s Healthcare Robotics Lab, his
graduate students and researchers at Meka Robotics have developed a
control method that works in tandem with compliant robotic joints and
whole-arm tactile sensing. This technology keeps the robot’s arm
flexible and gives the robot a sense of touch across its entire arm.
With their control method, Kemp’s robots have performed numerous
tasks, such as reaching through dense artificial foliage and a cinder
block representative of environments that search-and-rescue robots can
encounter.
A publication describing the research, “Reaching in clutter with
whole-arm tactile sensing,” appears in this month’s edition of the
International Journal of Robotics Research.
Kemp's lab also has promising results that could impact the future of
assistive robotics. They have developed tactile sensors made out of
stretchable fabric that covers the entire arm of a robot. In a
preliminary trial with the new control method and sensors, a person with
quadriplegia used the robot to perform tasks for himself. He was able
to pull a blanket over himself and grab a cloth to wipe his face, all
while he was in bed at his home.
This trial was conducted as part of the Robots for Humanity project
with Willow Garage. In order to ensure safety, researchers from Kemp’s
lab closely monitored the activities. This research has been accepted
and will be presented at the International Conference on Rehabilitation
Robotics in June.
“I think it’s a good safety feature because it hardly presses against
me even when I tell it to,” reported the participant, Henry Evans,
after the trial. “It really feels safe to be close to the robot.”
Evans was also impressed by how the robot’s arm “just wriggles around obstacles.”
Kemp’s research team has also released the designs and code for the
sensors and controller as open source hardware and software so that
researchers and hobbyists can build on the work.
The research is part of an ongoing effort to create a new foundation
for robotics, where contact between the robot’s arm and the world is
encouraged.
“Our belief is that this approach is the way of the future for
robots,” said Kemp, who is also a member of Georgia Tech’s Center for
Robotics and Intelligent Machines. “It is going to allow robots to
better operate in our homes, our workplaces and other complex
environments.”
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