Abstract
It is known that mobile robot applications have a preponderant role in industrial and social environments and, more specifically, helping human beings in carrying out difficult tasks in hostile environments. From teleoperated systems to autonomous robots, there is a wide variety of possibilities requiring a high technological level. Many concepts such as perception, manipulator design, grasping, dynamic control, etc. are involved in the field of industrial mobile robots. In this context, human–robot interaction is one of the most widely studied topics over the last few years together with computer vision techniques and virtual reality tools. In all these technical fields, a common goal is pursued, i.e., robots to come closer to human skills.
In this paper, first some important research projects and contributions on mobile robots in industrial environments are overviewed. Second, a proposal for classification of mobile robot architectures is described. Third, results achieved in two specific application areas of mobile robotics are reported. The first is related to the tele-operation of a mobile robot called ROGER by means of a TCP/IP network. The control system of the robot is built up as a distributed system, using distributed object oriented software, CORBA compatible. The second is related to the teleoperation of an underwater robot called GARBI. (Research project co-ordinated with the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Prof. Josep Amat) and financed by the Spanish Government.)
The utility of this kind of prototype is demonstrated in tasks such as welding applications in underwater environments, inspection of dammed walls, etc.
Finally, an industrial project involving the use of intelligent autonomous robots is presented showing how the experience gained in robotics has been applied.