b-it-bots RoboCup@Work Team Description Paper 2023

TL;DR

This paper reports on the b-it-bots RoboCup@Work team and its approach to enabling reliable mobile manipulation in industrial environments using the KUKA youBot. It describes a ROS-based, modular software framework with multi-sensor perception, precision manipulation including vertical-object grasping and empty-space placement, and task planning with Mercury and LAMA, along with ongoing porting to ROS2. Hardware modifications to the youBot (enhanced sensing, a redesigned gripper, and higher-energy storage) and a software architecture designed for robot-agnostic reuse are presented, including an open-source repository. The work demonstrates improved robustness in navigation, perception, and manipulation and emphasizes reusability of components across different robots and domains, with practical potential for industrial automation.

Abstract

This paper presents the b-it-bots RoboCup@Work team and its current hardware and functional architecture for the KUKA youBot robot. We describe the underlying software framework and the developed capabilities required for operating in industrial environments including features such as reliable and precise navigation, flexible manipulation, robust object recognition and task planning. New developments include an approach to grasp vertical objects, placement of objects by considering the empty space on a workstation, and the process of porting our code to ROS2.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: b-it-bots robot configuration based on the KUKA youBot padalkar2019_robocup
• Figure 2: Flexible-finger gripper and teensy micro controller teensy
• Figure 3: Object perception pipeline padalkar2019_robocup
• Figure 4: YOLOv5 + DeepSORT tracker architecture wojke2017simple