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Trajectory planning and simulation of a custom mobile manipulator for door opening tasks using ROS
Nowadays, mobile robots are employed extensively in manufacturing and service sectors for completing tasks efficiently. Number of mobile robots used in household and medical related tasks increased due to their capability to carry out tasks with a high precision. The emergence of COVID-19 cases also encouraged mobile robots’ usage in service sectors to implement contactless operations. Development of robotic systems for opening doors during navigation is a crucial task. This paper presents the development of a custom-made mobile manipulator for opening doors. Tiago base mobile robot and Universal Robot 3 (UR3) manipulator fitted with Robotiq gripper were combined for developing a new mobile manipulator. Kinematic and workspace analyses of UR3 manipulator were carried out using the screw theory formulation. A trajectory planning for opening a door was carried out using Robot Operating System (ROS) platform. A simulation study was done to visualize the robot operation during the door opening task.