Development of 3D printed mecanum mobile manipulator and task-space control.

Collaborative robots combined with mobile platforms can move freely and have a wide work area. Technological developments in AI and vision have also led to increased research on recognition of objects and surroundings using mobile manipulators. However, even though such trends have resulted in growing demand for research on mobile manipulators, their high prices make them difficult to purchase. We solved this problem using 3D printing. A mobile manipulator was manufactured by replacing more expensive reducers with 3D printed planetary gear and cycloid gear reducers. As well, a mecanum in-wheel motor equipped with a 3D printed cycloid reducer was developed to increase the usability of the interior space of the mobile platform. The study employed a task-space control algorithm, which controls the mobile platform and the manipulator simultaneously to ensure effective control of the mobile manipulator. Task-space motion control performance was verified through Gazebo simulation and experiment. Additionally, the repeatability of the task-space position control was measured through experiments and its performance was compared with a commercial manipulator. Finally, we have developed a mobile manipulator that can perform similar levels of work as a commercial robot at one tenth the price of a general commercial mobile manipulator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]