uBot-5



uBot-5

The 2005 final report for the NSF/NASA Workshop on Autonomous Mobile Manipulation identified mobile manipulation technology as being critical for next generation robotics applications. It also identified a need for appropriate research platforms for mobile manipulation. We predict that the vast majority of interesting and useful mobile manipulation applications will require acquiring, transporting, and placing objects– so-called “pick-and-place” tasks. To address this need the uBot-5 was built.

The uBot-5 is a small and lightweight research platform for mobile manipulation. It was designed to be an economical robot that is highly capable, durable, and safe to operate. When equipped with a LCD touchscreen monitor and a webcam, the uBot-5 can be used for social telepresence applications. Additionally the teleoperator can use the uBot-5's manipulation capabilities to perform useful work.

The uBot-5 is dynamically stable, using two wheels in a differential drive configuration for mobility. Dynamically stable robots are well suited to environments designed for humans where both a high center of mass and a small footprint are often required. In the case of the uBot-5, which behaves much like an inverted pendulum, active stabilization becomes easier as the robot (and thus the center of mass) becomes taller. The uBot-5 can also employ whole body postural control afforded by its dynamically stable configuration to generate greater pushing and pulling forces than are possible on an equivalent statically stable platform.

A complete redesign of uBot-4, the new platform features upgraded processors, improved power to weight ratio, longer running batteries, additional space for sensor/processor expansion. Other members of the uBot family include uBot-3, uBot-2, uBot-1, and uBot-05.


Papers

Kuindersma, S., Hannigan, E., Ruiken, D., and Grupen, R. Dexterous Mobility with the uBot-5 Mobile Manipulator, 14th International Conference on Advanced Robotics (ICAR), Munich, Germany. June, 2009.

Deegan, P. Grupen, R., Hanson, A., Horrell, E., Ou, S., Riseman, E., Sen, S., Thibodeau, B., Williams, A., Xie, D. Mobile Manipulators for Assisted Living in Residential Settings, Autonomous Robots, Special Issue on Socially Assistive Robotics. Volume 24, Number 2. February 2008.

Deegan, P., Thibodeau, B., Grupen, R. Designing a Self-Stabilizing Robot For Dynamic Mobile Manipulation, Robotics: Science and Systems - Workshop on Manipulation for Human Environments. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. August, 2006.

Thibodeau, B., Deegan, P., Grupen, R. Static Analysis of Contact Forces With a Mobile Manipulator, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Orlando, Florida. May, 2006. © 2006 IEEE

Images

(right click image and select view to see larger)


Videos



Push up

The uBot-5 performs a push up with transition to balancing.






Baseball throw

The uBot-5 demonstrates a baseball throw while balancing.






Table clearing

The uBot-5 demonstrates a partially teleoperated pick-and-place task.





News and Press

NewScientist article covering the Robot Exhibition at IJCAI 2009 in Pasadena, CA.

Fox News (12/10/08) uBot: Technology to Help Aging Baby Boomers

Newsweek (8/8/08) Why Should We Be Friends? As Japan builds a new generation of robot companions, U.S. firms focus on pragmatics.

The uBot-5 participated in New Tech Demos at SIGGRAPH with the MIT MDS robot (Personal Robotics Group) 8/11/08 - 8/15/08: Humans meet their robot overlords at SIGGRAPH

Washington Post (8/5/08) Someone -- No, Some Thing -- to Watch Over You

CBS (7/8/08) WALL-E Robots Coming into Massachusetts Homes

ScienceCentral News (6/26/08) The Real WALL-E

Coverage of the appearance of the uBot-5 during Bill Gates' Keynote at the TechEd Conference in Orlando, FL (6/3/08):

A few of the recent articles covering healthcare applications developed on the uBot-5:

ComputerWorld (4/7/08) published a picture tour of the Microsoft Robotics Group: As robotics moves from the factory to the home, Microsoft is jumping on board and related article (4/10/08) Video: Has a robot revolution started, or is it still 20 years off?.

The Discover Magazine (1/8/08) reported on the Microsoft Robotics Studio group at CES 2008 in Las Vegas in the blog: Live from CES: A Robot in Every Home—Microsoft's High Hopes

The San Francisco Chronicle (12/9/07) also covered the Robo Development Conference and Expo: The Robots Among Us

Bryan talked about the uBot-5 in a video interview by VI Shots while at the 2007 RoboDevelopment Conference and Expo in San Jose.

Collaboration with the Personal Robotics Group at MIT, is covered by the New York Times Magazine (7/29/07): The Real Transformers

See more Ubot-5 videos at YouTube demonstrating the Microsoft Robotics SDK.