A Behavior-Based Control System for Mobile Manipulation

The field of industrial robotics can be defined as the study, design and use of robot systems for manufacturing. Although the problem of designing a controller for industrial robots has been the subject of intensive study, a number of assumptions are usually made which may seriously limit the applicability of these robots. First, the robotic manipulator is usually considered to be positioned at one place, which means that it can only work in its limited working envelope fixed to this position. Second, it is usually assumed that the environment of the manipulator (workcell) is carefully engineered to suit the task and the configuration of the manipulator. The workcell is usually controlled in a way that makes it fully predictable. Finally, the control program of the manipulator is often designed assuming that the task will not change, and it is difficult to reprogram it to fit other tasks and/or other environments.