Introducing robots into a human-centred environment - the behaviour-based approach

This paper describes the application of behaviour-based control for a mobile manipulation task. It presents a preliminary result in the research into a 'task-robust' controller for a service robot, needed when a robot is used in a human-centred environment. The chosen benchmark task is the co-operative carrying of a long object by a mobile manipulator and a human. The human will guide the task, the mobile manipulator follows, while avoiding obstacles in its path. This paper gives a global overview of the implemented control structure, the resulting behaviour of the mobile manipulator and some goals for the future are presented.