Bimanual Telemanipulation Framework Utilising Multiple Optically Localised Cooperative Mobile Manipulators

Abstract

Bimanual manipulation is valuable for its potential to provide robots in the field with increased capabilities when interacting with environments, as well as broadening the number of possible manipulation actions available. However, for a robot to perform bimanual manipulation, the system must have a capable control framework to localise and generate trajectories and commands for each sub-system to allow for successful cooperative manipulation as well as sufficient control over each individual sub-system. The proposed method suggests using multiple mobile manipulator platforms coupled through the use of an optical tracking localisation method to act as a single bimanual manipulation system. The framework’s performance relies on the accuracy of the localisation. As commands are primarily high-level, it is possible to use any number and combination of mobile manipulators and fixed manipulators within this framework. We demonstrate the functionality of this system through tests in a Pybullet simulation environment using two different omnidirectional mobile manipulators, as well a real-life experiment using two quadrupedal manipulators.