Mobile manipulators have been used for inspection, maintenance and repair tasks over the years, but there are some key limitations. Stability concerns typically require mobile platforms to be large in order to handle far-reaching manipulators, or for the manipulators to have drastically reduced workspaces to fit onto smaller mobile platforms. Therefore we propose a combination of two widely-used robots, the Clearpath Jackal unmanned ground vehicle and the Kinova Gen3 six degree-of-freedom manipulator. The Jackal has a small footprint and works well in low-clearance indoor environments. Extensive testing of localization, navigation and mapping using LiDAR sensors makes the Jackal a well developed mobile platform suitable for mobile manipulation. The Gen3 has a long reach with reasonable power consumption for manipulation tasks. A wrist camera for RGB-D sensing and a customizable end effector interface makes the Gen3 suitable for a myriad of manipulation tasks. Typically these features would result in an unstable platform, however with a few minor hardware and software modifications, we have produced a stable, high-performance mobile manipulation platform with significant mobility, reach, sensing, and maneuverability for indoor inspection tasks, without degradation of the component robots' individual capabilities. These assertions were investigated with hardware via semi-autonomous navigation to waypoints in a busy indoor environment, and high-precision self-alignment alongside planar structures for intervention tasks.

翻译：多年来，移动操作机器人已被用于检查、维护和维修任务，但仍存在一些关键局限性。稳定性问题通常要求移动平台体积较大以支持远程操作臂，或需要大幅缩减操作臂的工作空间以适应小型移动平台。因此，我们提出将两种广泛使用的机器人——Clearpath Jackal无人地面车辆与Kinova Gen3六自由度操作臂——进行组合。Jackal占地面积小，非常适合低净空室内环境。通过激光雷达传感器进行的定位、导航与建图等大量测试，使其成为成熟的移动操作平台。Gen3操作臂具备长臂展和合理功耗，适用于操作任务；其腕部RGB-D摄像头与可定制末端执行器接口使其能胜任多种操作任务。通常这些特性会导致平台不稳定，但通过少量硬件与软件改进，我们成功构建了一个稳定、高性能的移动操作平台，兼具卓越的移动性、臂展、感知能力和机动性，适用于室内巡检任务，且不降低各组成机器人的独立能力。通过半自主导航至繁忙室内环境中的航点，以及沿平面结构进行高精度自对准干预任务的硬件实验，验证了上述结论。