Mastering Mobile Manipulators Course - Python

Master how to create ROS applications for autonomous mobile manipulators

Course Summary

Robot manipulators are mobile robots equipped with mobility, one or several robotics arms, and a gripper. They have the ability to autonomously move within an environment, detect objects to grasp, and grasp them to bring them to the proper location. They are widely used in warehouses to locate and bring stuff, in malls and airports to clean, in nuclear areas to access dangerous zones, and even underwater to reach difficult locations. Robot manipulators will be used even more in the near future as their skills improve. In this course, you will learn how to build a complete ROS application to make a mobile manipulator fill a box with the proper objects obtained from another location.

What you will learn

How to do robot navigation in known environments.
How to use perception to detect the objects to grasp in the background.
How to move a robotic arm with a gripper to grasp an object.
How to create a complete application that integrates all these behaviors into a single ROS app based on State Machines.
How to create a web interface that allows people without ROS knowledge to control the robot's operation.

Course Overview

Setting Up the Navigation System for a Mobile Manipulator

Learn how to set up a Navigation System (using the ROS Navigation Stack) for a Mobile Manipulator robot.

Setting Up Manipulation (Part 1)

Learn how to create a MoveIt Package for your mobile manipulator robot. By completing this unit, you will be able to create a package that allows your robotic arm to perform motion planning.

Setting Up Manipulation (Part 2)

Learn how to perform motion planning with Python scripts. By completing this unit, you will be able to create a Python program that performs motion planning on your robotic arm.

Setting Up Grasping

Learn how to create a program that performs a full pick and place task, paying special attention to the grasping process.

Creating the behavior of the robot

Learn how to create and manage state machines, using FlexBe, in order to generate different behaviors for your robot.

Creating the Web interface

Learn how to create a Web Interface for the robot. You will be able to see the navigation map, the robot camera, control the robot through a web-joystick, and start/stop the pick and place algorithm.

Teachers

Robots used

RB-KAIROS robot

Learning Path

Mastering Mobile Manipulators