Target dynamic grasping during mobile robot movement based on learning methods

Abstract

Purpose

One of the development trends of robots is to enable robots to have the ability of anthropomorphic manipulation. Grasping is the first step of manipulation. For mobile manipulator robots, grasping a target during the movement process is extremely challenging, which requires the robots to make rapid motion planning for arms under uncertain dynamic disturbances. However, there are many situations require robots to grasp a target quickly while they move, such as emergency rescue. The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for target dynamic grasping during the movement of a robot.

Design/methodology/approach

An off-line learning from demonstrations method is applied to learn a basic reach model for arm and a motion model for fingers. An on-line dynamic adjustment method of arm speed for active and passive grasping mode is designed.

Findings

The experimental results of the robot movement on flat, slope and speed bumps ground show that the proposed method can effectively solve the problem of fast planning under uncertain disturbances caused by robot movement. The method performs well in the task of target dynamic grasping during the robot movement.

Originality/value

The main contribution of this paper is to propose a method to solve the problem of rapid motion planning of the robot arm under uncertain disturbances while the robot is grasping a target in the process of robot movement. The proposed method significantly improves the grasping efficiency of the robot in emergency situations. Experimental results show that the proposed method can effectively solve the problem.

Citation

Li, E., Feng, H., Zhai, Y., Haitao, Z., Xu, L. and Fu, Y. (2021), "Target dynamic grasping during mobile robot movement based on learning methods", Industrial Robot, Vol. 48 No. 1, pp. 6-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/IR-01-2020-0005