Assistive Robotic Manipulation with Scalable Autonomy

Mobile manipulation aids enable people with physical disabilities to manipulate their environment. However, controlling a robotic manipulator with many degrees of freedom is challenging, especially with a low-dimensional interface such as a 3D joystick. In this video we present our solution for more self-reliant control of wheelchair-mounted manipulators. In our robotic system EDAN, we integrated scalable autonomy, a holistic approach which provides manipulation assistance by offering three levels of autonomy: “direct control“, “shared control“ and “supervised autonomy“. In addition, we coordinate the movement of the arm with that of the wheelchair, increasing the reachability of the arm for tasks that require a large range of motion. This video demonstrates the capabilities of our system in a realistic home-like environment. A series of tasks are performed with varying levels of autonomy, allowing intuitive operation at the user’s preferred pace. The demonstration in this video is with an unimpaired user. Future work will include evaluation with users from the target group.