engineering

Mobile manipulator

Mobile manipulator is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mobile manipulator rather than just read about it. In short: A mobile manipulator is a robot system built from a robotic manipulator arm mounted on a mobile platform. Description A mobile robotic system combines the mobility offered by a mobile platform and dexterity offered by the manipulator.

Key takeaways

Mobile manipulator belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mobile manipulator to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mobile manipulator from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A mobile manipulator is a robot system built from a robotic manipulator arm mounted on a mobile platform.

Description

A mobile robotic system combines the mobility offered by a mobile platform and dexterity offered by the manipulator. The mobile platform offers an extended workspace to the manipulator and more degrees of freedom to operate in. However, the operation of such a system is challenging because of the many degrees of freedom and the unstructured environment that it performs in. A system is generally composed of the mobile platform, the robotic manipulator arm, vision components, and tooling components.

Use cases Mobile manipulation is a subject of focus in development and research environments. Mobile manipulators, either autonomous or remote operated, are used in many areas, such as space exploration, military operations, home care and health care. Within the industrial field, the implementation of mobile manipulators has been limited. The necessary technology entities (mobile platforms, robot manipulators, vision, and tooling) are, to a large extent, available from off-the-shelf components. Few implementations of mobile robots in the industrial field have been reported due to the center of attention being drawn on optimization of the individual technologies, especially robot manipulators and tooling, while the integration, use, and application have been neglected in the field of industrial mobile manipulation. This means that few implementations of mobile robots, in production environments, have been reported – e.g. and.

Timeline

Video example

One recent example is the mobile manipulator "Little Helper" from the Department of Production at Aalborg University.

See also Cyber-physical system Home automation Remote manipulator Robotic arm

Notes and references

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mobile manipulator

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mobile manipulator claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mobile manipulator before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mobile manipulator ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mobile manipulator

In research: Mobile manipulator appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mobile manipulator in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mobile manipulator is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Robotic manipulation, Robotic manipulators, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mobile manipulator outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mobile manipulator in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mobile manipulator means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mobile manipulator out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mobile manipulator in simple terms?

A mobile manipulator is a robot system built from a robotic manipulator arm mounted on a mobile platform. Description A mobile robotic system combines the mobility offered by a mobile platform and dexterity offered by the manipulator.

Why does Mobile manipulator matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mobile manipulator?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mobile manipulator.