The First WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge -- Lessons Learned

David Cáceres Domínguez; Marco Iannotta; Abhishek Kashyap; Shuo Sun; Yuxuan Yang; Christian Cella; Matteo Colombo; Martina Pelosi; Giuseppe F. Preziosa; Alessandra Tafuro; Isacco Zappa; Finn Busch; Yifei Dong; Alberta Longhini; Haofei Lu; Rafael I. Cabral Muchacho; Jonathan Styrud; Sebastiano Fregnan; Marko Guberina; Zheng Jia; Graziano Carriero; Sofia Lindqvist; Silvio Di Castro; Matteo Iovino

arXiv · 2505.06919

The First WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge -- Lessons Learned

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Abstract

The first WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge, held in December 2024 at ABB Corporate Research in V\"aster{\aa}s, Sweden, addressed the automation of task-intensive and repetitive manual labor in laboratory environments - specifically the transport and cleaning of glassware. Designed in collaboration with AstraZeneca, the challenge invited academic teams to develop autonomous robotic systems capable of navigating human-populated lab spaces and performing complex manipulation tasks, such as loading items into industrial dishwashers. This paper presents an overview of the challenge setup, its industrial motivation, and the four distinct approaches proposed by the participating teams. We summarize lessons learned from this edition and propose improvements in design to enable a more effective second iteration to take place in 2025. The initiative bridges an important gap in effective academia-industry collaboration within the domain of autonomous mobile manipulation systems by promoting the development and deployment of applied robotic solutions in real-world laboratory contexts.

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David Cáceres Domínguez, Marco Iannotta, Abhishek Kashyap, Shuo Sun, Yuxuan Yang, Christian Cella, Matteo Colombo, Martina Pelosi, Giuseppe F. Preziosa, Alessandra Tafuro, Isacco Zappa, Finn Busch, Yifei Dong, Alberta Longhini, Haofei Lu, Rafael I. Cabral Muchacho, Jonathan Styrud, Sebastiano Fregnan, Marko Guberina, Zheng Jia, Graziano Carriero, Sofia Lindqvist, Silvio Di Castro, Matteo Iovino. 2025-05-11. The First WARA Robotics Mobile Manipulation Challenge -- Lessons Learned. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.06919

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