Dexterous Manipulation System for Small Robots

Currently fielded EOD robots lack the feedback, situational awareness, dexterity, and intuitive control schemes necessary to perform operations requiring high precision. Designing a better manipulator arm will only solve part of the problem; a full solution requires better feedback and control in addition to physical dexterity. We present a Dexterous Manipulation System (DMS) consisting of a highly dexterous manipulator arm, innovative gripper, and an advanced control system. The highly dexterous arm features redundant degrees of freedom that will allow the user to perform complex maneuvers, including reaching around obstacles or inside containers. The detachable grippers present the gripping feedback users need to pick up small or fragile objects, and can be replaced by users to attach other tools or upgrade to future better grippers. The DMS also offers better situational awareness and a control unit which uses advanced control techniques to allow the user to intuitively position, orient, and use the gripper. The DMS is designed to be a replacement payload for the current fleet of EOD robots, beginning with the Foster-Miller TALON.