Co-carrying an object by robot in cooperation with humans using visual and force sensing

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Human-Robot Interaction
• Control Systems

Background:

• Human-robot collaboration in shared workspaces presents challenges, particularly for co-carrying tasks.
• Indirect collaboration often leads to difficulties in coordinating object manipulation.
• Reducing human physical effort is crucial for effective human-robot cooperation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a framework for robots and humans to cooperatively carry objects using integrated sensing.
• To enable active robot cooperation and minimize human exertion during co-carrying tasks.
• To enhance the symbiotic relationship between humans and autonomous systems.

Main Methods:

• A framework integrating visual and force sensing for human-robot co-carrying tasks.
• Admittance-based force control incorporating visual sensing of human motion.
• A hybrid controller combining visual servoing and force feedback for refined robot motion generation.

Main Results:

• Experimental validation of the proposed framework in a co-carrying task.
• Successful demonstration of a Baxter robot and human cooperating to carry a box object.
• The framework enables robots to actively participate and reduce human effort.

Conclusions:

• The proposed visual and force sensing framework effectively facilitates human-robot co-carrying.
• Active robot cooperation significantly reduces human physical effort.
• This research contributes to the development of symbiotic autonomous systems.