The F5-S robot. A mobile manipulator with a differential drive, laser range finders for localisation and a 6DOF robotic arm. This particular machine was installed to carry out service tasks in the intelligent home at TU Berlin. Photo by Festo Didactic.

The F5-S robot is designed to be a successor of the Leonardo robot. Like the F5, it is a mobile platform produced by Festo Didactic GmbH & Co. KG in Denkendorf, Germany for the Life Science Lab, Surveillance and the Housekeeping Scenario. Compared to the F5, the F5-S was designed to be smaller in size to enable its utilisation in domestic environments. It is also a battery-driven, wheeled, mobile platform with one laser range finder for localisation, navigation and mapping and additional distance sensors to detect stairs or difficult floor passages. A robotic arm allows precise manipulation of the environment.

I developed the software architecture of the F5-S robot which is based on the architecture of the F5, yet extended by the necessary components to interface the manipulator, the gripper and the camera. Most software components could be reused from the Leonardo and F5 platforms.