A framework for intuitive collaboration with a mobile manipulator

In this paper, we present a control strategy that enables intuitive physical human-robot collaboration with mobile manipulators equipped with an omnidirectional base. When interacting with a human operator, intuitiveness of operation is a major concern. To this end, we propose a redundancy solution that allows the mobile base to be fixed when working locally and moves it only when the robot approaches a set of constraints. These constraints include distance to singular poses, minimum of manipulability and distance to objects and angular deviation. Experimental results with a Kuka LWR4 arm mounted on a Neobotix MPO700 mobile base validate the proposed approach.