In the aging societies of the industrialized world, there will be an increasing demand for intelligent machines performing services in interaction or collaboration with humans. These machines will share with us our living environment and will have to perform everyday tasks in human-like manners. As a consequence, in the field of service robotics, systems are needed that can handle everyday objects in unconstraint environments, in much the same way as they are handled by humans.
Interaction with changing and, hence, only partially known environments requires intelligent sensor-data processing and advanced control architectures. Addressing this challenge for robotics, we present a mobile hand-arm system with anthropomorphic features as well as some capability for autonomous behavior. The system integrates, on the hardware side, a mobile platform, an arm optimized for light weight, and an articulated dexterous four-finger hand with, on the software side, basic navigation skills, real-time scene analysis by stereo vision, compliant motion control, and an intuitive man-machine interface. We have called this system the Robutler.