Manipulation

Mobile Manipulation

Mobile manipulation is the integration of navigation and manipulation on a single platform, typically an arm or dual arms mounted on a mobile base, enabling tasks that require both moving through an environment and physically interacting with it. It introduces challenges beyond either capability alone: base-arm coordination and whole-body control, manipulation from imprecisely known base poses, and long-horizon tasks interleaving driving, perceiving, and grasping.

Why it matters for physical AI

Fixed arms serve only what is within reach; mobility multiplies a manipulator's addressable work, making mobile manipulation the required form factor for household, healthcare, and flexible warehouse robotics.