IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2015 - 15

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 1. Examples of some recent commercially available mobile manipulators: (a) Tiago (photo courtesy of Pal Robotics), (b) Baxter
mounted on the Ridgeback platform (photo courtesy of Clearpath Robotics), and (c) Fetch and Freight (photo courtesy of Fetch Robotics).

The 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation
(ICRA) saw the first edition of the
Amazon Picking Challenge, where 28
teams from around the world competed
to retrieve items from a standardized
shelving unit to complete an order, as
shown in Figure 2 [5]. The rules of the
contest were based on a simplified picking task. There were 24 predefined
objects to be picked from a shelving
unit containing 12 cubbyholes. Each
team was given 20 min to pick 12
objects. The teams could solve the challenge with any platform of their choice.
In fact, the range of robots was very
wide: from custom-made platforms to
Baxters and PR2s; using arms from
ABB, Fanuc, Yaskawa, Universal
Robots; and employing scoops, parallel
grippers, multifingered hands, and suction-based gripping. The winner of this
competition was Team RBO, from the
Technical University of Berlin, Germany, followed by the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT) Team
(United States), and Team Grizzly
(United States). The results showed how
difficult it is to solve a real-life logistics
problem, as it incorporates many perception and planning problems due to
the restricted areas of operation. The
next edition of the Amazon Picking
Challenge will very likely take place in
2016. Challenges remain on areas like
speed and cost-effectiveness, to prove

(a)

(b)

Figure 2. The Amazon Picking Challenge: (a) first place: Team RBO from TU Berlin
(photo courtesy of Oliver Brock) and (b) second place: the MIT Team (photo courtesy of
Alberto Rodriguez).

that robots can actually replace human
workers in these scenarios.
Given the importance of the field, the
TC develops several activities to encourage the exchange of information among
interested researchers. Each year, the TC
organizes or sponsors workshops at main
robotic conferences, such as ICRA, the
IEEE/Robotics Society of Japan International Conference on Intelligent Robots
and Systems, and Robotics Science and
Systems Conference. The TC also supports initiatives for funding educational
activities through the RAS Creation of
Educational Material in Robotics and
Automation projects. For registered
members, the TC sends the biannual
newsletter with recent developments and
news. To register as a TC member or to
obtain more information on mobile
manipulation and on current activities in

the field, please visit the web page of the
TC, http://www.mobilemanipulation.org.
You can also keep up to date or share the
latest news by joining our Facebook or
LinkedIn Groups.
References
[1] TIAGo Mobile Manipulator. (2015, Nov. 19).
[Online]. Available: http://www.tiago.pal-robotics.com
[2] Baxter Research Robot. (2015, Nov. 19).
[Online]. Available: http://www.rethinkrobotics.
com/baxter-research-robot/
[3] (2015, Nov. 19). Ridgeback: Omnidirectional
Platform. [Online]. Available: http://www.clearpathrobotics.com/ridgeback/
[4] (2015, Nov. 19). Fetch and Freight. [Online].
Available: http://fetchrobotics.com/fetchandfreight/
[5] Amazon Picking Challenge. (2015, Nov. 19).
[Online]. Available: http://amazonpickingchallenge.org/

DECEMBER 2015

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IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE

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http://www.mobilemanipulation.org http://www.tiago.pal-robotics.com http://www.rethinkrobotics http://www.clear http://www.pathrobotics.com/ridgeback/ http://www.fetchrobotics.com/fetchandfreight/ http://amazonpickingchal http://www.lenge.org/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - December 2015