Mobile dual arm robot

• Subject Area: Systems Engineering
• Term: Funded in 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438833210

The subject of this proposal is the acquisition of a mobile dual arm robot with an additional motion capturing system to serve as experimental platform for the research on control methods and motion planning in the context of human-robot-collaboration. One research focus of the Chair of Automatic Control of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) is on the development of optimization-based methods and predictive control methods for nonlinear systems with applications to mechatronics, robotics, and networked systems. In the field of robotics, research in particular focuses on collision-free motion planning for robots with multiple arms in dynamically changing environments and on predictive torque and admittance control. The mobile dual robot of this proposal shall serve as experimental platform to extend these current research topics to mobile robotics and for two intended research projects. The first research project is concerned with the motion planning and control for applications of cooperative load transport with two arms. From the motion planning perspective, these robotic tasks require to account for the closed kinematic chain of the robot arms while avoiding collisions with obstacles and humans in the workspace of the mobile robot. From the control perspective, one challenge, for instance, is that the load of large, heavy or bulky objects has to be effectively distributed to both robot arms, in order to ensure the safe transport of the object in combination with the motion planning. The second intended research project focuses on the human in the workspace of the robot. The motion of the human shall be captured by the motion capturing system as part of this proposal in order to derive and learn behavioral models to predict the movement of the human. This prediction shall be integrated in the motion planning for the mobile dual robot with the goal to provide predictive collision avoidance in the context of human-robot-collaboration. The anticipated research projects can build upon own previous research activities in this field and essentially require the experimental platform consisting of a mobile dual robot with motion capturing functionality for its validation. In the medium term, the dual arm robot platform also allows to establish new cooperations with other chairs and working groups at the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg in order to strengthen and focus the competences and research in the field of human-robot-collaboration.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Mobiler Zweiarmroboter
• Instrumentation Group: 2320 Greif- und Hebewerkzeuge, Verladeeinrichtungen
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Leader: Professor Dr. Knut Graichen