Robot-to-Human Object Handover using a Behavioural Control Strategy

Abstract

Recent research results in robotics currently make possible the close interaction between humans and robots. This research focuses on the design and development of an appropriate set of behaviour control strategies for robot-to-human object handover by first understanding how an equivalent human-human object handover can be used to establish a framework for a robotic behaviour-based approach. To achieve this goal, a real-world human-to-human object transferring task has been carried out in order to understand the dynamic and kinematic behavioural characteristics of the haptic interaction between two human participants. The profiles of interactive forces between the giver and receiver were measured as a function of time, and how they are modulated while performing the cooperative tasks, was evaluated. Based on key features as proposed, these can be subsequently used to design and develop the conceptual guideline for a human-like behaviour-based service robot. Position-based force control using proportional plus integral (PI) and fuzzy logic control (FLC) algorithms were adopted to control the robot end effector position and interactive force in real-time. The results allowed a comparison of the PI and FLC control strategies. It can be concluded that the quantitative measurement of the controlled robot performance is close to that of the human and can be considered acceptable for human-robot interaction. The effective object transferring tasks provide robot to be able to successfully pass the object to the human in a safe, reliable and timely manner. However, after careful analysis with regard the test results, the control based FLC scheme was shown to be slightly superior to PI control by actively compensating for the dynamics in the non-linear system and demonstrated better overall performance and stability.