Autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM): past, present and future

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the interdisciplinary research field, autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM), with an emphasis on physical implementations and applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction to AIMM, this paper investigates the missing links and gaps between the research and developments efforts and the real-world application requirements, in order to bring the AIMM technology from laboratories to manufacturing environments. The investigation is based on 12 general application requirements for robotics: sustainability, configuration, adaptation, autonomy, positioning, manipulation and grasping, robot-robot interaction, human-robot interaction, process quality, dependability, and physical properties. Findings – The concise yet comprehensive review provides both researchers (academia) and practitioners (industry) with a quick and gentle overview of AIMM. Furthermore, the paper identifies key open issues and promising research directions to realize real-world integration and maturation of the AIMM technology. Originality/value – This paper reviews the interdisciplinary research field, autonomous industrial mobile manipulation (AIMM).