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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Robot. AI
Sec. Field Robotics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frobt.2025.1546894
This article is part of the Research Topic Intelligent Autonomous Robots: Enhancing Adaptability and Resilience in Complex Environments View all articles

On Realizing Autonomous Transport Services in Multi Story Buildings with Doors and Elevators

Provisionally accepted
Paul Schulze Paul Schulze *Steffen Müller Steffen Müller *Tristan Müller Tristan Müller *Horst-Michael Groß Horst-Michael Groß *
  • Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Mobile service robots for transportation tasks are usually restricted to a barrier-free environment where they can navigate freely. To enable the use of such assistive robots in existing buildings, the robot should be able to overcome closed doors independently and operate elevators with the interface designed for humans while being polite to passers-by. The integration of these required capabilities in an autonomous mobile service robot is explained using the example of a SCITOS G5 robot equipped with differential drive and a Kinova Gen II arm with 7 DoF. This robot also defines the framework conditions with certain limitations in terms of maneuverability and perceptual abilities. Results of field tests with that robot in an elderly care facility as well as in a university office building are shown, where it performed transportation and messaging tasks. We also report on the success rates achieved and highlight the main problems we have encountered and dicsuss open issues.

    Keywords: Elevator riding, Door Manipulation, Door detection, Differential drive, System Solution Frontiers

    Received: 17 Dec 2024; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Schulze, Müller, Müller and Groß. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Paul Schulze, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
    Steffen Müller, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
    Tristan Müller, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany
    Horst-Michael Groß, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.