Model-Based Integration of Environment Description and Task Execution

This paper describes a model-based manipulation system being developed at Electrotechnical Laboratory. The system is composed of a direct-drive 6-revolute-joints manipulator ETA-3, a 3-D data acquisition system, an environment modeler with a geometric reasoning subsystem, and a programming system ETAlisp. Conventional CAD modeler provides idealized geometric description, while the robot system must executes tasks in the real world where a variety of constraints, errors and uncertainties must be treated. The system described in this paper is an integration to overcome these problems. A model base structure, a real world modeling system, a spatial calibration among coordinate frames, and a task execution system are described.