Industries used to make use of articulated manipulators that were doing dull and dangerous repetitive tasks. Over time, those robots have grown modern and are capable of working alongside a human operator rather than alone in a work cell. Hence, a combination of such robots with industrial-grade ground vehicles help in certain industrial applications. One of the most common applications is machine tending. It is one of the most trending applications today and a lot of robots are getting deployed in this field. A machine tending robot is one in which certain tasks that help to "tend" to a machine are carried out by the robot. Some tending tasks are the loading and unloading of parts from a machine, assembly operations, meteorological inspections, and more.
In warehouses, mobile manipulators are common as well. These are used in material handling tasks such as the loading and unloading of materials. The robot also helps in stock monitoring and analysis where it could help to identify a sudden reduction in the quantity of stock either based on consumption or market demand. A lot of collaboration is carried out in this area with robots of different kinds. Aerial robots such as drones are popular in warehouses and are used alongside mobile manipulators to keep track of stock monitoring and other inspection activities.
In space exploration and hazardous environments, since the mobile manipulators could be either an autonomous or semi-autonomous operations, these robots could be used in places that are not suitable for human life sustainability. These robots are used both in space and nuclear reactor plants to perform human-like operations without humans. They use specialized end effectors that replicate human hands and are suited up according to the environment so that the robot's internal systems aren't fried or damaged. An expert-human takes control of such robots, visualizes the robot and environment around the robot through certain sensors, and performs manipulation operations with the help of sophisticated human interface devices.
In military operations, one area where mobile manipulator research is strongly focused and being researched and funded highly for development is in the military. Mobile manipulators are accompanied by smaller reconnaissance robots that help in surveillance operations. They are used to either carry heavy payloads or even pull injured people to a safe location. They're also used in manipulation activities through manual operations, where a soldier could either defuse a bomb or open doors of an unmanned locality. Now, let's learn to build mobile manipulators.