Many robots either move around or stay put and manipulate objects. Mobile manipulation combines the two, putting a capable arm on a moving base, so a single robot can travel to a location and then pick up, carry and place items, much as a person walks over and uses their hands.
This flexibility suits tasks like fetching items across a warehouse, tidying spaces or helping in homes and labs. Coordinating movement with precise manipulation is hard, especially in cluttered, changing environments, so these robots are still maturing and often work in controlled settings, but the combination is a major step toward machines that are genuinely useful across varied real-world tasks.