GIRAF - Greatly Increased Reach for Adaptive Fieldwork

Stanley J Wang, Long Yin Chung, Lukas Klostermair, Daniel Morton, Mark Cutkosky

Keywords: space robotics, field robotics, manipulation, deployable, in-space manufacturing and assembly

TL;DR: We present a long-reach mobile manipulator for large-workspace field and lunar tasks, showing that coordinated planning can substantially reduce required base motions.

Abstract: We present GIRAF (Greatly Increased Reach for Adaptive Fieldwork), a mobile manipulation platform integrating an ANYmal D quadruped with a long-reach deployable manipulator arm. Compared to conventional architectures, incorporating a deployable joint enables greater reach while preserving useful payload capacity. This is well suited to construction, inspection, and maintenance tasks in field and space environments, where robots operate across large structures and extended workspaces. On the lunar surface, for example, infrastructure tasks can require access across multiple meters. Tasks such as cable routing, large-surface cleaning, and servicing distributed infrastructure benefit from extended reach (>3 m), enabling access to otherwise inaccessible locations and improving task efficiency. We present the GIRAF system design, an optimization-based formulation for robust mobile manipulation, and initial hardware deployments.

Submission Number: 10