A Simple Control Method for Opening a Door with Mobile Manipulator

The home service robot supports human beings by performing various kinds of works at home. This paper presents a simple control method for opening a door from the viewpoint of the mobile manipulation. The simulation shows various results of path planning and motion planning for opening a door. The joint trajectories were generated by the simulation system. In general, a six-axis force/torque sensor at an end-effector is needed in order to maintain the static equilibrium of the manipulator. But we show another method. From three components of applied forces which was directly obtained by the three-axis force sensor and three components of applied forces which was indirectly estimated by the joint-torque sensors, all of joint torques that will exactly balance forces at the end-effector in the static situation can be found. It is more practical method than using a six-axis force sensor in a wrist. Experimental results have shown that the opening a door can be realized more effectively from the suggested control method of mobile manipulation.