Modular software architecture for human-robot interaction applied to the InterBot mobile robot

Abstract

This paper describes a new modular software architecture designed to allow collaborative Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). The proposed HRI system is applied to the InterBot (Interactive mobile roBot), which integrates two Human-Machine Interface (HMI) devices: an on-board portable device and a remote station. The software architecture is mainly developed using the Robot Operating System (ROS) framework, and is designed to be modular and versatile. The proposed software modules provide a reliable structure for users to interact with and directly control the InterBot, e.g. allowing a human to be guided during a tour, or for a human to order the InterBot to perform tasks such as delivering messages or items between laboratories. The remote station acts as the supervisor, being in charge of planning the robot tasks sequentially, while displaying the robot information in a perceivable way. A series of tests and experiments were carried out in order to assess the performance of the InterBot platform in different test scenarios and under three Human-Robot control modes: teleoperation, autonomous and shared control. Presented real-world tests show the functional flexibility of the proposed architecture and outline future directions of development and research. The results also show that the InterBot software architecture is robust to the occurrence of network delays.