| This dissertation has two main contributions, a modular design of a mobile manipulator and a set of tele-operation performance experiments using this platform. To experimentally evaluate system performance and operator preferences, several tests were designed: 1) Which robot camera placement provides the best operator information. 2) A comparison of alternative master-slave motion coordination schemes. 3) A comparison of some semi-autonomous “software helper” routines to see if they improve manipulation and reduce task load on the operators. Additionally two case studies show how the system was successful in performing complete mobile manipulation tasks, in particular, large-displacement pick-and-place and opening a door to exit a room. A goal of the project was to show how a high-end mobile manipulator can be integrated from off the shelf hardware parts and open-source software libraries. |
