Development and enhancement of mobile robot arms for EOD applications

Abstract

Autonomous Solutions has multiple projects involving mobile robot arms for EOD applications. This paper will describe 3 such projects. In the first, a 5 DOF robot arm of our own design is mounted on a 4-wheeled omni-directional platform. The arm is capable of lifting 100 pounds at close to full extension, and it can lift significantly more at shorter distances. The operator can specify either individual joint control or "fly the gripper" control, where the individual joint velocities are automatically calculated in response to commanded gripper velocities. In the second project, 3D data of a scene of interest is gathered and then presented to the EOD technician, along with a representation of the arm. The technician can then rotate the scene and arm to obtain the best possible view for the task. In the final project, a 3 DOF arm will be mounted to an omni-directional platform. The arm and platform will be treated as a single 6 DOF manipulator, and the operator will specify 6 DOF gripper velocity commands using a 6-axis input device, such as those used for solid modeling programs.