Unified software platform for intelligent home service robots

Abstract

Although the mobile manipulation capability is crucial for a service robot to perform physical work without human support, the long-term autonomous operation of such a mobile manipulation robot in a real environment is still a tremendously difficult task. In this paper, we present a modular, general purpose software framework for intelligent mobile manipulation robots that can interact with humans using complex human speech commands; navigate smoothly in tight indoor spaces; and finally detect and manipulate various household objects and pieces of furniture autonomously. The suggested software framework is designed to be easily transferred to different home service robots, which include the Toyota Human Support Robot (HSR) and our Modular Service Robot-1 (MSR-1) platforms. It has successfully been used to solve various home service tasks at the RoboCup@Home and World Robot Summit international service robot competitions with promising results.