A Mobile Manipulator to Help Workers on the Factory Floor

What if you had a robot assistant that could help you use a screwdriver, pick things off a shelf, and carry things around a factory? It might not be something out of a science-fiction novel too much longer.

Dr Yuqian Lu from the Department of Mechanical Engineering is creating a mobile robot that can do just that. The robot has built-in intelligence to navigate around people and obstacles, and think and act autonomously. Dr Lu wants to create a robot that can work alongside humans as part of a human-robot team to meet New Zealand's industry needs better.

Traditional automation techniques are efficient for creating standardised products at large volume: cars, phones, and more. But that doesn't work for many New Zealand manufacturers — smaller companies making highly customised products with manual or semi-automated manufacturing processes.

"You may be surprised to see the amount of manual and repetitive work in the factories of some of the most innovative high-tech companies." — Dr Yuqian Lu

An autonomous mobile robot allows manufacturers an unprecedented level of flexibility. It can be integrated with already-existing manufacturing cells to co-manipulate manual work. New Zealand small manufacturers can introduce flexible robots gradually, test them out, and take their own steps towards automating their facilities.

"We want to create a human-robot collaboration." — Dr Yuqian Lu