Developing hardware capability for mobile manipulation by low-cost humanoid robot (LOCH)

Purpose – Autonomous mobile manipulation depends on a lot of effort at various levels. In general, the hardware design is as important as algorithm (or software) design. In particular, the absence of certain capabilities of hardware can seriously affect the feasibility and performance of algorithms. The purpose of this paper is to present work on developing hardware capability for mobile manipulation by low-cost humanoids (LOCH) humanoid robot. Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents research work on developing the hardware support which enables vision-guided mobile manipulation realized on top of a biped humanoid robot called LOCH. One important goal which guides the development is to achieve the hardware capability with human-like dexterity, modularity, functionality, and appearance. Findings – This paper discusses the detail of solutions leading to the realization of the intended hardware capability, focusing in particular on the issues related to mechanism, actuation, distributed sensing, and distributed control of humanoid head, humanoid hands and humanoid arms. Finally, the paper shows the result of the actual prototype, which can be controlled by a remote control station through wireless connection. Research limitations/implications – In designing a machine, it is common to do motor-sizing and material selection. Since these are standard procedures, these details are omitted because readers with the training in mechanical engineering should be able to work out such details in order to select the appropriate motors and materials. Also, this paper does not delve into the description of the biped system of LOCH humanoid, because such work requires another long paper in order to reveal major details. Originality/value – This paper presents the major detail of research efforts toward developing hardware capabilities for achieving autonomous mobile manipulation by LOCH humanoid robot, focusing on three important modules, namely: perception head, human-like hands, and arms. The uniqueness of this work is twofold. First, LOCH humanoid robot’s perception head has the most versatile sensing capabilities, which are fully integrated into a compact and human-like head. Second, each of LOCH humanoid robot’s hands has 14 degrees of freedom, which are realized within a mechanism which is of human-hand size and shape. In addition, the perception head, humanoid hands and humanoid arms are seamlessly integrated together owing to the adoption of a distributed system which supports networked sensing and control through the use of both control area network bus and transmission control protocol/internet protocol internet.