Development of a Small-Sized Intelligent Home Service Robot

Abstract

Thanks to the recent introduction of affordable robotic components such as sensors, motors, batteries, and processors, there has been a growing interest in commercial home service robots that performs various household tasks for humans. However, home service robots with manipulation capabilities are typically large, heavy, and expensive, which poses a big hurdle for widespread research on such platforms. In this paper, we introduce a small-sized mobile manipulation robot, Granny, for home service robotics research. The suggested robot platform is capable of various functionalities required for home service robots, which include omnidirectional movement, localization, navigation, and manipulation while being small, light, and affordable. The suggested robot has been validated at the 2020 STEAM CUP IRC Home Service Challenge (HSC) robotic competition and won first place.