AUTONOMOUS OPENING OF A DOOR WITH A MOBILE MANIPULATOR: A CASE STUDY

In this paper a robust strategy for opening a door with a mobile manipulator system is described. The considered system is a combination of the DLR-Lightweight-Robot-II and the DLR-Hand-II with a mobile platform. The Cartesian impedance control of the arm serves as a basis for the door opening strategy. In the presentation of the controller the emphasis is put on the treatment of the joint elasticities and on its robustness properties. Then the application of opening a door is described in detail. After grasping and turning the door handle, the arm uses a special impedance behavior to keep the door at a distance while the mobile platform moves through the door hinge. This works without knowledge of the door size and without planning an explicit door opening trajectory.