The Mobile Manipulation Challenge, Results
Sarah Elliott, Niharika Arora, Carl Saldanha, Alex Moriartyh!

Introduction●●Wintca FeIn May, Fetch Robotics held a robotic manipulation competition
at ICRA 2019 in Montreal
1st place team won a Fetch mobile manipulator robot

Why another robotics competition?
● Industrial application: kit filling, machine tending, bin picking● Fetch robot eligible for many competitions, but not a perfect fit○○○○

ERL: Only open to Europeans, rules don’t fit our use cases
RoboCup@Work: Designed for Kuka YouBot, environment size not ideal
RoboCup@Home: Slow moving, focused on general-purpose service robots
ACRV Picking Benchmark: Great benchmark, wanted more industrial
applications

Competition Overview

Boltx2Task:●

Pick parts from station/bin○●

Simulate machining task
○

●
●
●

3D printed parts: https://github.com/fetchrobotics/fetchit/schunk_machine/goalPlace parts in kit
Place kit at drop-off location
Trigger camera to inspect kit○/sick_camera/goalComplete as many kits as possible in 45 min

Small &Large Gears

Gearbox
Top &Bottom

Competition OverviewGearbox PickStation

SchunkMachine &Gear PickStation

Kit Station

Kit
Drop-Off
Screw Bin
Pick Station

Competition Overview
Gearbox PickStation

SchunkMachine &Gear Pick
StationKit Station

Kit
Drop-Off
Screw Bin
Pick Station

Items Not TouchingCompetition Overview

Schunk Machine(simulated machining task)

Remote Arena
View from an overhead camera●VPN access to robot○●Needs TCP/UDP on all ports for subscribers/service

Ceiling-mounted cameras

Remote access arena

Competition Overview
ActionPointsFull kit delivered (all 6 items and kit at drop-oﬀ station)

7

Closing the SCHUNK machine door with Large Gear inside+3

Delivering the kit to SICK Inspector, and trigger inspection+1

Dropped Item

-1

Collision with Environment (minor)-1

Kit delivered with extra item(s)-1 (per extra item)

Kit delivered with item in incorrect section of kit-1 (per misplaced item)

Kit delivered with item(s) missing0

Full rulebook for this year’s competition available at:opensource.fetchrobotics.com/assets/Rulebook2019.pdf

Competition Results
1st Place: Georgia
TechPrizes:
Fetch Mobile Manipulation Research Robot$7K Schunk Bucks
SICK MRS1000 4-layer LiDAR and TiM561 LiDAR

2nd Place: UMass Lowell

Prizes:$5K Schunk Bucks
SICK MRS1000 4-layer LiDAR and TiM561 LiDAR

Other participants: Columbia, Case Western, FidoGT Complete Kit Example Video
Screw Bin
PickStation

Kit Station

Gearbox
PickStation
SchunkMachine& Gear
PickStation

Kit
Drop-OffStation

Manipulation Strategies

Physically triangulating thechuck

Using the torso lift/lower for
faster manipulation

Software Tools●

ROS Melodic:○○●

Gazebo○○●●●Enforced using Melodic
Forced us to release Melodic for the Fetch
Web-based simulation provided by The Construct
Sim code: https://github.com/fetchrobotics/fetch_gazebo -> fetchit_competition

MoveItSupported/Encourage use of Docker
Teams Open Sourced Code:○○Georgia Tech: https://github.com/GT-RAIL/derail-fetchit-public
UMass Lowell: https://github.com/uml-robotics/fetchit2019

Lessons Learned●●

Difficult for teams without robots to participate
Higher fidelity simulation○○●

Better remote access
○
○
○

●

Fetch Gazebo model needs improvement
Gazebo has out-improved our model
Original camera setup had too much latency
Final camera setup didn’t have enough cameras/viewpoints
Better network speeds

Better internet at venue

FetchIt! 2020
●Potential Locations:○○●Rule Changes
○○
○
○

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IROS 2020: Las Vegas
ICRA 2020: Paris
Off the shelf items
More automation of competition environment, e.g. automatic Schunk Machine door
Greater focus on kitting, more realistic kit
Real bin-picking

Improve Experience for Teams Without Robots Already○○○○Loaner Robots
On-site Hackathons
Improvements to the robot in simulation
Improvements to remote accessSummary
We gave away a Fetch!
We want to give away another Fetch!
Don’t buy a Fetch!
Win a Fetch!

Thanks to FetchIt! Sponsors: