A Voice-Commandable Robotic Forklift Working Alongside Humans in Minimally-Prepared Outdoor Environments
Name
Teller-2010-A Voice-Commanded Robotic Forklift Working Alongside Humans in Minimally-Prepared Outdoor Environments.pdf
Size
1.76 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
bb60a89c9c4b611729e4feb022890e71
Author(s)
Teller, Seth
Walter, Matthew R.
Antone, Matthew
Correa, Andrew Thomas
Davis, Randall
Fletcher, Luke Sebastian
Frazzoli, Emilio
Glass, Jim
How, Jonathan P.
Huang, Albert S.
Date Issued
May 2010
Journal
Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
Teller, S. et al. “A voice-commandable robotic forklift working alongside humans in minimally-prepared outdoor environments.” Robotics and Automation (ICRA), 2010 IEEE International Conference on. 2010. 526-533. © Copyright 2010 IEEE
Version
Final published version
Abstract
One long-standing challenge in robotics is the realization of mobile autonomous robots able to operate safely in existing human workplaces in a way that their presence is accepted by the human occupants. We describe the development of a multi-ton robotic forklift intended to operate alongside human personnel, handling palletized materials within existing, busy, semi-structured outdoor storage facilities. The system has three principal novel characteristics. The first is a multimodal tablet that enables human supervisors to use speech and pen-based gestures to assign tasks to the forklift, including manipulation, transport, and placement of palletized cargo. Second, the robot operates in minimally-prepared, semi-structured environments, in which the forklift handles variable palletized cargo using only local sensing (and no reliance on GPS), and transports it while interacting with other moving vehicles. Third, the robot operates in close proximity to people, including its human supervisor, other pedestrians who may cross or block its path, and forklift operators who may climb inside the robot and operate it manually. This is made possible by novel interaction mechanisms that facilitate safe, effective operation around people. We describe the architecture and implementation of the system, indicating how real-world operational requirements motivated the development of the key subsystems, and provide qualitative and quantitative descriptions of the robot operating in real settings.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2010.5509238
