HOUSEHOLD SERVICE ROBOT WITH CELLPHONE INTERFACE

Abstract

In this paper, an efficient and low-cost cellphone-commandable mobile manipulation system is described. Aiming at house and elderly caring, this system can be easily commanded through common cellphone network to efficiently grasp objects in household environment, utilizing several low-cost off-the-shelf devices. Unlike the visual servo technology using high quality vision system with high cost, the household-service robot may not afford to such high quality vision servo system, and thus it is essential to use some of low-cost device. However, it is extremely challenging to have the said vision for precise localization, as well as motion control. To tackle this challenge, we developed a realtime vision system with which a reliable grasping algorithm combining machine vision, robotic kinematics and motor control technology is presented. After the target is captured by the arm camera, the arm camera keeps tracking the target while the arm keeps stretching until the end effector reaches the target. However, if the target is not captured by the arm camera, the arm will take a move to help the arm camera capture the target under the guidance of the head camera. This algorithm is implemented on two robot systems: the one with a fixed base and another with a mobile base. The results demonstrated the feasibility and efficiency of the algorithm and system we developed, and the study shown in this paper is of significance in developing a service robot in modern household environment.