IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2021 - 115

Mobile Robot (KAMRO) [27]. Efforts toward coordinating
base and arm motions also received seminal contributions
during these years [28], [29]. Since then, there have been
many developments and highlights in wheeled manipulation
systems. Hvilshøf et al. [30] surveyed up to 30 different
prototypes developed up to 2011. The main application
domains of mobile manipulation systems ranged from
domestic service [31], [32] through space [33] to industry,
with commercial solutions from, e.g., KUKA (https://www
.kuka.com/en-gb/products/mobility/mobile-robots) and
Neobotix (https://www.neobotix-roboter.de/produkte/
mobile-manipulatoren).
Around 2010, a wave of more advanced, bimanual, multipurpose
wheeled manipulators arrived (Figure 1), with systems
such as the Personal Robot 2 (PR 2) [32] developed at Willow
Garage, the Care-O-Bot 3 [34] developed at the Fraunhofer
Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems,
HERB [35] developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Rollin'
Justin [36] developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR),
and the ARMAR series developed at the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology [37]. This wave represented a milestone since it coincided
with the introduction to the community of the Robot Operating
System (ROS) [38] which, through its modular structure
and components such as the ROS Navigation Stack (http://wiki
.ros.org/navigation) and MoveIt! (https://moveit.ros.org/),
made it easier to build complex software systems. 2010
was also the year when the RAS TC on Mobile Manipulation
was established.
Although this series of wheeled manipulation systems
created a lot of excitement and interest in mobile manipulation
and its applications, it also revealed challenges. The
cost of building such systems was especially prohibitive for
large-scale use and adoption, hampering the development
of a larger research community. Early adopters of mobile
manipulators included the military and law enforcement,
both of which used robots for dangerous missions such as
defusing bombs and the remote inspection of installations.
In the past few years, a greater number of simpler yet fully
integrated and commercially oriented wheeled manipulation
systems have been observed. These developments
include Take It and Go (TIAGo) (http://pal-robotics.com/
robots/tiago/), which is unimanual, and TIAGo++ (bimanual)
by PAL Robotics; the Fetch Mobile Manipulator
(https://fetchrobotics.com/robotics-platforms/fetchmobile-manipulator/)
by Fetch Robotics (available for
researchers); Swift (https://www.iamrobotics.com/our
-solution/) from IAM Robotics; RB-1, RB-Kairos, RB-Eken,
and RB-Vulcano systems from Robotnik (https://robotnik
.eu/products/mobile-manipulators/); industrially oriented
KUKA Mobile Robotics (KMR) (https://www.kuka.com/
Rollin' Justin
PR2
Fetch TIAGo
Stretch
2007
2010
ROS
Care-O-Bot 3
TC on Mobile
Manipulation
HERB
KMR iiwa
RB-Kairos
Handle
2015
2020
Figure 1. Wheeled robotic manipulator development during the past decade.
JUNE 2021 * IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE *
115

http://www.kuka.com/en-gb/products/mobility/mobile-robots http://www.kuka.com/en-gb/products/mobility/mobile-robots https://www.neobotix-roboter.de/produkte/mobile-manipuatoren https://www.neobotix-roboter.de/produkte/mobile-manipuatoren http://www.pal-robotics.com/robots/tiago http://www.pal-robotics.com/robots/tiago https://fetchrobotics.com/robotics-platforms/fetch-mobile- manipulator/ https://www.iamrobotics.com/our-solution https://www.iamrobotics.com/our-solution https://robotnik.eu/products/mobile-manipulators https://robotnik.eu/products/mobile-manipulators http://wikiros.org/navigation http://wikiros.org/navigation https://moveit.ros.org/ https://www.kuka.com/

IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - June 2021

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