Development of an Inflatable Robotic Arm on Mobile Platform for Fetch-and-Give Tasks

This paper proposes a novel inflatable robotic arm on a mobile platform. To date, inflatable structures have been utilized for robotic arms to provide the workforce in the welfare and nursing care fields. In these fields, inflatable robots, which is lightweight, soft and compactable, is suitable to perform daily tasks near humans and things because of safe contact. In our research group, an inflatable robotic arm consisting of inflatable links, inflatable actuators and a gripper with pleated sheet structures have been developed.In this paper, the robotic arm is utilized in combination with a mobile platform in order to realize practical daily tasks. As an example of the task, a fetch-and-give task is demonstrated. The posture of the robotic arm and the position of the mobile platform is measured by a motion capture system. The whole system is controlled based on the visual information. Finally, it is confirmed that the inflatable robot has sufficient performance for a daily task in living space.