The objective of this project is to study mobile manipulation systems, which are key to many new applications of robotics in space, underwater, construction, and service environments. Our current effort focuses on the development of semi-autonomous "robotic assistants" to help humans in various manipulation tasks. The robotic assistant is designed to supplement the physical capabilities of a human, providing an "extra pair of hands" that can move a large load in response to forces he exerts. Multiple robot assistants can work together in moving and positioning objects under human supervision.

The work builds on four methodologies we have developed for fixed base manipulation: the Operational Space Formulation for task-oriented robot motion and force control; the Dynamic Coordination of Macro/Mini Structures for increased mechanical bandwidth of robot systems; the Augmented Object Model for the manipulation of objects in a robot system with multiple arms; and the Virtual Linkage Model for characterization and control of internal forces in multi-arm systems.

Romeo and Juliet are two mobile manipulator platforms developed and built at Stanford, in collaboration with Nomadic Technologies, and Oakridge National Laboratories. Each platform consists of a Puma 560 manipulator mounted on a holonomic mobile base. The platforms are self-contained, fully-integrated systems, equipped with a host of sensors, a multi-processing system, multi-axis controller, radio-ethernet communications, and sufficient on-board power for autonomous operations.

"The Augmented Object Model: Cooperative Manipulation and Parallel Mechanism Dynamics"
 Chang, K., Holmberg, R, Khatib, O.
Proc. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, San Francisco, April 2000, pp. 470-475.


"Cooperative Tasks in Mobile Manipulation Systems."
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Casal, A.
Preprints of the IFAC Workshop on Intelligent Components for Vehicles, ICV'98, Ed. A. Ollero, Seville, Spain, March 1998, pp. 279-284.

"Coordination and Decentralized Cooperation of Multiple Mobile Manipulators"
 Khatib, O., K. Yokoi, K. Chang, D. Ruspini, R. Holmberg, A. Casal
Journal of Robotic Systems v 13 n 11 Nov 1996. pp 755-764

"Decentralized cooperation between multiple manipulators"
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Chang, K., Ruspini, D., Holmberg, R., Casal, A.
Robot and Human Communication, 1996., 5th IEEE International Workshop on 11-14 Nov. 1996 Page(s):183 - 188


"Cooperative Tasks in Multiple Mobile Manipulation Systems"
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Chang, K., Ruspini, D., Holmberg, R., Casal, A.
Proc. 6th International Symposium on Robotics and Manufacturing, (ISRAM'96), Montpellier, France, May 1996, pp. 345-350.

"Decentralized Cooperation of Multiple Mobile Manipulators"
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Chang, K., Ruspini, D., Holmberg, R., Casal, A.
Proc. of 5th IEEE Int. Workshop on Robot and Human Communication. Tsukuba, Japan, 1996

"Force Strategies for Cooperative Tasks in Multiple Mobile Manipulation Systems"
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Chang, K., Ruspini, D., Holmberg, R., Casal, A., Baader, A.
Robotics Research 7, The Seventh International Symposium, G. Giralt and G. Hirzinger, eds., Springer 1996, pp. 333-342,

"Vehicle/Arm Coordination and Multiple Mobile Manipulator Decentralized Cooperation"
 Khatib, O., K. Yokoi, K. Chang, D. Ruspini, R. Holmberg, A. Casal
Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, Osaka, 1996, pp 546-553

"Vehicle/Arm Coordination and Multiple Mobile Manipulator Decentralized Cooperation"
 Khatib, O., Yokoi, K., Chang, K., Ruspini, D., Holmberg, R., Casal, A.
Proc. of IEEE/RSJ Int. Conf. Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS'96, Osaka, Japan, 1996, pp. 546-553.


"Force Strategies for Cooperative Tasks in Multiple Mobile Manipulation Systems"
 Khatib, O., K. Yokoi, K. Chang, D. Ruspini, R. Holmberg, A. Casal, A. Baader
Int. Symp. of Robotics Research, Munich, October 1995


"Cooperative Manipulation in Mobile Robotic Systems"
 Khatib, O.
Proc. 9th IFToMM World Congress on the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms,, Milan, Italy August 1995. vol. 3, pp. 2343-2347.

"Cooperative Mobile Robotic Manipulation"
 Khatib, O.
Proc. ROVPIA' 94 International Conference on Robotics, Vision and Parallel Processing for Industrial Automation, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia, 1994, pp. 371-377.

"The Virtual Linkage: A Model for Internal Forces in Multi-Grasp Manipulation"
 David Williams, Oussama Khatib
International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Atlanta, October 1993, v 3, p 1025-1030


Last update: 08 - 2004 by F.Conti