The mobile robot “Little Helper”: Concepts, ideas and working principles

Abstract

Increased customer needs and intensified global competition require intelligent and flexible automation. The interaction technology mobile robotics addresses this, so it holds great potential within the industry. This paper presents the concepts, ideas and working principles of the mobile robot "Little Helper" - an ongoing research project at Aalborg University, Denmark, concerning the development of an autonomous and flexible manufacturing assistant. To demonstrate the "Little Helper" concept a full-scale prototype has been built and experiments carried out. Experiences and knowledge gained from this show promising results regarding industrial integration, exploitation and maturation of mobile robotics.