Cooperative Transportation of Object by Mobile Robot Helper and Human

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a mobile robot helper and its motion control algorithm for handling an object in cooperation with a human. First, we introduce a prototype of the mobile robot helper, "MR Helper", which consists of two manipulators and an omni-directional mobile base. We then propose a control algorithm for handling an object in cooperation with a human. The control algorithm specifies the apparent dynamics of the manipulated object so that the human could handle the manipulated object together with the robot. Load sharing by "MR Helper" and a human is also realized by introducing a lifting-up/down system. The control algorithm is experimentally applied to the "MR Helper", and the experimental results illustrate the validity of the proposed control algorithms.