Body Extension by Using Two Mobile Manipulators

This paper presents a remotely operated robotic system that includes two mobile manipulators to extend the functional capabilities of a human body. Compared with previous tele-operation or robotic body extension systems, using two mobile manipulators helps with enlarging the workspace and allowing manipulation of large or long objects. The system comprises a joystick for controlling the mobile base and robotic gripper, and a motion capture system for controlling the arm poses. They together enable tele-operated dual-arm and large-space manipulation. In the experiments, a human tele-operator controls the two mobile robots to perform tasks such as handover, long object manipulation, and cooperative manipulation. The results demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed system, resulting in extending the human body to a large space while keeping the benefits of having two limbs.