Mobile Manipulation of Limbed Robots — Proposal on Mechanism and Control —

Abstract Two proposals on mobile manipulation of “limbed robots”-defined as robots which have both arms and legs-are described. 1) “Limb Mechanism”, using one linkage for both legged locomotion and arm manipulation, enlarges arm's working space and augments arm's versatility in mobile manipulation. Based on this concept, a six-limb robot is developed. 2) Coordinating with the arm motion for performing objective tasks, the legs autonomously change some motion patterns such as standing and stepping; that enables dexterous, stable and efficient manipulation by the arms. This control method is applied to humanoid robots, which have two arms and two legs.

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