Co-Operation of a Dual-Arm Robotic Avatar Through Body Integration of Multi-Person

Abstract

Humans have spatiotemporal limitations. Robotic avatar technology enables the expansion of an individual's innate physical characteristics, physical capabilities, and perceptual and cognitive abilities. Our research group has focused on scalability and co-creativity through co-operation and collaboration between humans, and has developed a system in which two operators are physically integrated into a single robotic arm. In particular, to enable more human-like tasks, such as receiving and delivering, we extended the system to a dual-arm robotic avatar and built a system in which multiple persons can integrate their bodies, with the expectation of further task efficiency and human extension. Specifically, we investigated the workability and operator cognition of the dual-arm robotic avatar when it was operated by one, two, or three individuals. The results showed that stability improved with the three-person operation. Furthermore, it was found that co-operation among multiple persons can overcome the original individual abilities for operation. In the three-person condition, all participants obtained a higher feeling of control than the actual amount of manipulation, which has potential applications in skill transfer. The three-person condition tended to be better, validating the usefulness of multi-person body integration.