Sharing effort in planning human-robot handover tasks

Abstract

For a versatile human-assisting mobile-manipulating robot such as the PR2, handing over objects to humans in possibly cluttered workspaces is a key capability. In this paper we investigate the motion planning of handovers while accounting for the human mobility. We treat the human motion as part of the planning problem thus enabling to find broader type of handing strategies. We formalize the problem and propose an algorithmic solution taking into account the HRI constraints induced by the human receiver presence. Simulation results with the PR2 robot illustrate the efficacy of the approach.