Cooperative Robots Architecture for an Assistive

Scenario
L. Ciuccarelli∗ , A. Freddi∗ , S. Longhi∗ , A. Monteriù∗ , D. Ortenzi† and D. Proietti Pagnotta∗
∗ Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy
Email: {a.freddi, sauro.longhi, a.monteriu}@univpm.it, d.proietti@pm.univpm.it
† Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Energia Elettrica e dell’Informazione, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy

Email: davide.ortenzi@unibo.it

Abstract—This paper proposes an assistive robotic solution for

elderly people and/or people suffering from lower limbs problem.
The proposed architecture consists of a Smart Wheelchair (SWC)
and a Robotic Workstation (RW) which cooperate in order to
perform an autonomous navigation and manipulation task. The
system allows the user to choose a point on the map to move to
and/or an object to manipulate. The SWC is able to autonomously
navigate to the desired RW, while the localization is performed
via an Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). Moreover, QR codes
have been used as landmarks to compensate the pose estimation
error. The system was tested both in simulation and in a real
scenario. (a) (b)

I. I NTRODUCTION Figure 1: System simulation.

In the last years, increasingly more attention is given to the
Socially Assistive Robotics (SAR) field, which has taken ad-
vantage from important financial investments [1]. A category
of SAR consists of physically assistive robots, which aim to
cooperate with humans in order to give physical assistance
and provide help to perform daily living tasks, such as shared
load transportation or passing objects [2].
In this context, an application scenario with large potential
is using assistive robots for increasing the autonomy and
promoting a more independent life style of disabled users
and/or elderly people. In the literature, various assistive robot
solutions, which aim at providing different types of support,
have been proposed. In [3] a system which aims to detect
falls in real-time based on a smartphone and a mobile robot
is developed. Acceleration data are gathered through the
accelerometer of the smartphone in order to detect body
movements and falls, while the mobile robot has the object
to establish if the detected fall has really happened and,
eventually, call the aids. A compliant robotic manipulator for
supporting the dressing task is proposed in [4]. In detail,
a Baxter robot dresses a mannequin by tracking the joint
locations and computing the arm trajectory. Authors of [5]
realized a framework where haptic robots act as mediators
allowing multiple users to interact to each other and supporting
a human-human group interaction in the same environment.
A feasible and effective solution for the navigation and
manipulation tasks for people suffering from lower limbs
problem consists in the cooperation among a smart wheelchair
and one or more robotic manipulators. The common approach
is mounting a light weight arm on a smart wheelchair, as
proposed in [6]. However, this type of solutions has a number
of drawbacks, including the working of the arm in an unstruc-
tured environments and the power supply of the system.
This paper presents the development and the implementation
of a real prototype of the architecture proposed in authors’ pre-
vious work [7]. In detail, the architecture proposed consists of
a Smart Wheelchair (SWC) and a Robotic Workstation (RW)
which cooperate to perform an autonomous navigation and
manipulation task. The prototype is tested in our laboratory at
the University of Marche.
II. S YSTEM OVERVIEW
A. Hardware
In this section, it is listed the main hardware components
which constitute the prototype. The manipulator of the RW is
a Baxter Research Robot, which is equipped with a couple
of seven Degrees of Freedom (DOFs) arms. The RW is
equipped also with a Kinect v2 camera. The SWC is a Quickie
Salsa R2, an electric wheelchair with two rear driving wheels
and two forward caster ones, equipped with the following
sensors: an Arduino ATMega2560 micro-controller, a LORD
MicroStrain 3DM-GX3-25 Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU),
a Sicod F3-1200-824-BZ-K-CV-01 encoder for each driving
wheel, a Hokuyo URG-04LX laser scanner and a Logitech
C270 webcam.
B. Software
The user is allowed by the SWC controller to choose a
point on the map to move to and/or an object to manipulate.

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Objects information are stored in a database in order to, at
each time, the SWC controller knows where a desired object
is located and is able to move the SWC towards that point in
an autonomously way.
The controllers of both the RW and the SWC are developed
under the Robot Operating System (ROS) middleware. Both
the controllers consist of a package (one for the RW and one
for the SWC) which collects several nodes that implement
various algorithms, which are explained in the following
section. The Gazebo simulator is exploited to test the system
(and its subsystems) in a simulated scenario.
III. M ETHODS
A. SWC Localization Algorithm
This phase is articulated in two steps. Firstly, an Unscented
Kalman Filter (UKF) is applied to remove the noise and to
determine the position of the SWC with respect to an absolute
coordinate reference frame. The filter carries out a sensor
fusion of the data gathered from the encoders, the IMU and
the webcam. In detail, the IMU is exploited to improve the
heading estimation, while the webcam is used to compensate
the drift in the estimation of the pose obtained from the
proprioceptive sensors (encoders and IMU). QR codes have
been used as landmarks, placed on the ceiling, and encapsulate
the information of the real pose with respect to the absolute
reference frame in the form X#Y#Z#room. When a code is
focused by the webcam, this information feeds the UKF which
can correct the SWC pose estimation.
Secondly, the Monte Carlo algorithm employs the data from
the laser scanner and the output of the UKF to localize the
SWC in the map.
B. SWC Navigation Algorithm
The aim of the navigation algorithm is to compute the
velocity commands to send to the wheels controller. The inputs
are the estimated pose of the SWC, from the localization
algorithm, the transformations between the considered frames
and the laser scanner data. The algorithm is based on the
Dynamic Window Approach (DWA), which associates the scan
map to a grid, where each cell assumes a number that identifies
the probability of its occupation. The trajectory is generated
considering the original global path, the presence of obstacles
and the location of the goal.
C. RW Pick and Place Algorithm
A visual servoing pick and place is carried out by the Baxter
arm when the SWC completed the navigation. In detail, the
algorithm is articulated in the following steps. Firstly, the
object location is estimated in the camera frame from the
image data acquired via the camera mounted at the end of the
Baxter arm. In order to find the object center of gravity, the rgb
image is converted into a black and white one to find the object
contours. Then, via the moments calculus, the center of gravity
is computed. Secondly, the position of the object is expressed
in the Baxter base frame by knowing the arm joint angles, its
height from the object and the camera calibration factor by
129
Figure 2: Evaluation of the real system.
using Eq. (1) in [8]. Finally, the desired object is picked by
the arm and placed on the user’s hand. This is accomplished
by means of the external Kinect sensor, which is able to track
online the skeleton of the user, and thus the location of his
hand.
IV. E XPERIMENTAL T RIAL
The proposed system is evaluated both in simulation and in
a real scenario. Regarding the simulation, the 3D model of the
SWC is developed in the Gazebo 7 simulator, complete with
the webcam, IMU and laser scanner models. Moreover, 9 QR
codes have been positioned in the simulated laboratory, with
a density of about 0.18 codes/m2 (Figure 1(a)). A graphical
user interface has been realized by which the user can choose
the desired object (Figure 1(b)). Once the object is chosen, the
SWC autonomously navigates to the desired RW, where the
robotic arm picks the user selected object and places it in the
neighborhood of the wheelchair. The user can then choose a
new point on the navigation map. Finally, the real system is
tested in our laboratory, as shown in Figure 2.
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