II-EN: Mobile Manipulation

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这个项目为宾夕法尼亚大学提供了基础设施，从他们现有的工作中建立到移动操作领域。GRASP实验室是宾夕法尼亚大学国际公认的机器人研究小组。现有教职员工14人，博士生约60人，分别来自计算机与信息科学（CIS）、电气与系统工程（ESE）、机械工程与应用力学（MEAM）等主要院系。GRASP最近启动了一个多学科的机器人硕士项目，让这些学生以及许多宾夕法尼亚大学的本科生参与到研究工作中来。GRASP实验室成员进行的研究包括视觉、规划、控制、多智能体系统、运动、触觉、医疗机器人、机器学习和模块化机器人等领域。该提案要求为仪器提供资金，使我们能够扩大我们的研究范围，包括重要的移动操作新领域。越来越多的机器人研究正致力于移动操作，因为它在帮助老年人和残疾人在家，帮助工人在工厂从事劳动密集型任务，以及减少消防员，警察和防爆小组成员的危险和危险方面具有很大的前景。正如2005年由NSF/NASA赞助的自主移动操作（AMM）研讨会得出的结论，迫切需要研究人员关注的技术挑战是：？灵巧的操作和物理交互？非结构化环境中的多传感器感知？人类附近的控制和安全？人机交互技术？GRASP的研究人员完全支持这些建议，并希望在解决这些问题方面起到带头作用。尽管GRASP对相关领域的类似挑战进行了大量研究，但该小组尚未研究移动操作这一独特且具有潜在变革性的主题。追求这些挑战的主要障碍是，移动操作的研究严重依赖于足够的实验平台的可用性。该组织正在请求资金，使他们能够获得这种设备。特别地，该小组正在申请资金用于(a)一个人体规模的移动机械手，包括Segway基座，Barrett 7-DOF手臂和配备触觉传感器和视觉传感套件的3指BarrettHand；(b)四个小型Aldebaran Robotics NAO类人机器人，具有运动和操纵能力。这些仪器将允许GRASP社区在自主移动操作、远程操作移动操作、人群导航、双足运动和多个移动操作平台的协调等领域进行研究。这一领域的进步以各种方式造福社会。例如，移动操作是家用机器人研究中最关键的领域之一，其目的是帮助人们（尤其是老年人和残疾人）做家务。移动机械手也将在办公室和工业环境中得到广泛应用，它们可以灵活地自动执行各种手动任务。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This project provides infrastructure to the University of Pennsylvania to build from their existing work into the area of mobile manipulation.The GRASP Lab is an internationally recognized robotics research group at the University of Pennsylvania. It hosts 14 faculty members and approximately 60 Ph.D. students from the primary departments of Computer and Information Science (CIS), Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM). GRASP recently launched a multidisciplinary Masters program in Robotics and involves these students, as well as many Penn undergrads, in its research endeavors. The research conducted by the members of the GRASP laboratory includes such areas as vision, planning, control, multi-agent systems, locomotion, haptics, medical robotics, machine learning and modular robotics. This proposal requests funding for instruments that would enable us to broaden our research to include the important new area of mobile manipulation. An increasing amount of research in robotics is being devoted to mobile manipulation because it holds great promise in assisting the elderly and the disabled at home, in helping workers with labor intensive tasks at factories, and in lessening the exposure of firemen, policemen and bomb squad members to dangers and hazards. As concluded by the NSF/NASA sponsored workshop on Autonomous Mobile Manipulation (AMM) in 2005, the technical challenges critically requiring the attention of researchers are:? dexterous manipulation and physical interaction? multi-sensor perception in unstructured environments? control and safety near human beings? technologies for human-robot interaction? architectures that support fully integrated AMM systems The researchers at GRASP fully support these recommendations and want to help lead the way in addressing them. Though GRASP conducts a great deal of research on similar challenges in related areas, this group has not worked on the unique and potentially transformative topic of mobile manipulation. The primary inhibitor to pursuing these challenges is that research in mobile manipulation critically depends on the availability of adequate experimental platforms. This group is requesting funding that would allow them to acquire such equipment. In particular, this group is requesting funding for (a) one human-scale mobile manipulator consisting of a Segway base, Barrett 7-DOF arm, and 3-fingered BarrettHand equipped with tactile sensors and a visual sensing suite; and (b) four small Aldebaran Robotics NAO humanoid robots capable of locomotion and manipulation. These instruments will allow the GRASP community to perform research in such areas as autonomous mobile manipulation, teleoperated mobile manipulation, navigation among people, bipedal locomotion, and coordination of multiple mobile manipulation platforms. Advances in this area are beneficial to society in a variety ways. For example, mobile manipulation is one of the most critical areas of research in household robotics, which aims at helping people (especially the elderly and the disabled) with their chores. Mobile manipulators will also see great use in office and industrial settings, where they can exibly automate a huge variety of manual tasks.