Forget Mobile Robots, Omnid Mocobots are Here to Change Manufacturing

Researchers have recently developed new collaborative mobile robots, dubbed Omnid Mocobots.

Researchers at Northwestern University's Center for Robotics and Biosystems have recently developed new collaborative mobile robots, dubbed Omnid Mocobots. These are collaborative mobile robots that are designed to cooperate with each other and with humans to pick up, handle, and transport delicate and flexible payloads. Three Omnid mocobots work collaboratively with a human on a pipe meeting activity. The 16kg pipes really feel weightless to the human and might be simply and intuitively manipulated with the help of the Omnids.

The new collaborative mobile robots, dubbed Omnid Mocobots:

The robots may be extremely useful to the manufacturing and transportation industry. In fact, the robots were inspired by the current workload in the manufacturing, warehouse, and construction industry that involved manipulating large, flexible objects.  These robots, launched in a paper pre-published on arXiv, are designed to cooperate with one another and with people to soundly choose up, deal with, and transport delicate and versatile payloads.

The new robotic system has a mobile base and a robotic arm. It has three important features that set it apart from other robots. The first is the robot arms with built-in mechanical compliance. Second, the robot arms have precisely-controlled forces at their grippers. And third, the control laws governing the mobile base and manipulator allow teams of Omnids to render a huge object weightless to the human.

The Center for Robotics and Biosystems has a long history of building robots that collaborate physically with humans. These new Omnid Mocobots may soon be used to complete a lot of collaborative manipulation tasks that involve a human. The researchers would now also like to test the robot's ability to autonomously transport and assemble different objects, including fragile, articulated, and flexible payloads. The Omnids additionally don't have to be reprogrammed for duties with several types of payloads.