Development of a balancing mobile service robot with linear extension structures

This video presents the development of a two-wheel mobile manipulator aimed for home service application. The robot has two wheels for mobility and two arms for manipulation to form a mobile manipulator structure. Several design concepts of the robot are presented for satisfying floor tasks as well as desk tasks. Typical designs about the robot, KOBOKER are to fit for the Korean life style of which Korean live and work on the floor. Two arms are designed to be long enough to reach the floor and access the object on the floor. The lifting structure of the torso helps the extension of the workspace in the vertical direction. The horizontal sliding movement of the waist is added to compensate for the center of mass when the robot grasps objects from the floor. Two arms are separately lifted to add more degrees of freedom. The combined motions from aforementioned linear extension structures provides advantages of small change in the location of the center of mass and the orientation of the end-effector compared with other robots with the bending structure. All movements of each joint of KOBOKER are demonstrated to show the functionality.