PR2

PR2, short for Personal Robot 2, is a mobile manipulation robot developed by Willow Garage. It was introduced in 2009 as a general-purpose platform for research in service robotics and automation.

The robot features two 7-DOF arms equipped with parallel grippers, mounted on a compact mobile base with two powered wheels and a stabilizing caster. It carries a sensor suite for perception and interaction, including RGB-D cameras and range sensors. The arms are designed for manipulation tasks such as grasping, tool use, and object reorientation, with compliant control and versatile end-effectors. The base provides indoor mobility suitable for home and lab environments.

PR2 runs the Robot Operating System (ROS) software stack and a range of perception, planning, and control modules. It was intended as an open platform to encourage software development and reproducible experiments, and it became widely used in universities and research labs around the world. The robot supported a broad set of tasks, from household chores to laboratory automation, and contributed to the development of grasping, manipulation planning, autonomous navigation, and human-robot collaboration.

Legacy: The PR2 helped popularize ROS and spurred a broad ecosystem of algorithms, datasets, and tutorials that underpin modern mobile manipulation research. Willow Garage halted production and operations in 2014; remaining units were donated or repurposed by academic and industry partners. The PR2's legacy continues through ongoing research in manipulation, perception, and the ROS community.