Analysis of Rigid Extended Object Co-Manipulation by Human Dyads: Lateral Movement Characterization

Abstract

Abstract-For co-manipulation involving humans and robots, robot controllers that are based on human-human behavior should allow more comfortable and coordinated movement between the human-robot dyad. In this paper, we describe an experiment between human-human dyads where we recorded the force and motion data as leader-follower dyads moved in translation and rotation. The force/motion data was then analyzed for patterns found during lateral translation only. For extended objects, lateral translation and in-place rotation are ambiguous, but this paper determines a way to characterize lateral translation triggers for future use in human-robot interaction. The study has 4 main results. First, interaction forces are non-negligible and are necessary for co-manipulation. Second, minimum-jerk trajectories are found in the lateral direction only for lateral movement. Third, the beginning of a lateral movement is characterized by distinct force triggers by the leader. Fourth, there are different metrics that can be calculated to determine which dyads moved most effectively in the lateral direction.

Human-Humanoid Collaborative Carrying

“…To conclude this section, we provide some insight into the feasibility of the QP problems (18)and (22). It has already been reported in [35] that the nominal MPC for walking with fixed footstep positions and without external forces is always feasible.…”

“…losing balance, workspace limitations, etc.). In a simple experiment, we show that we can switch between the two WPG formulations (18) and (22) instantly at will. The robot starts out as a follower.…”

“…For integrating the walk and the whole-body controller, recall that at each instant the WPG (be it follower (18) or leader (22)) provides a reference CoM position, velocity and acceleration. In Fig.…”

“…Another option is to enable equal partnerships with adaptive or versatile priority, eventually a continuous blending as in the seminal work [24]. Although we didn't try experimentally this option, our framework extends to this possibility by combining (18) and (22) into: In (47), W is a function that outputs the result of any implemented strategy (among those cited in the introduction) to assign role distribution or sharing. However, if these strategies apply well in joint manipulations in the object's task-space sharing, it is unlikely that they bring any added-value in the walking process that is a hybrid process which is not a task that is 'shared'.…”

“…Understanding and improving physical human-robot interaction is a very broad and active research field. For example, [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23] study human-human haptic interaction and apply it to human-robot teams. Role allocation and role switching (e.g., between leader and follower) have been studied in [24], [20], [25].…”