Towards a Design Toolkit for Exploring and Specifying Close-proximity Human-robot Collaboration as Leader and Follower: the Case of Collaborative Drawing

Abstract

Close-proximity human-robot collaboration (HRC) refers to scenarios where humans and robots work together for the same aim at the same time and space without safety fence. Few design tools currently exist to assist designers to think through how to design human-robot interactions, with a focus on turn-taking, coordination, and flow of intention. We present a design toolkit for designers to explore, specify, analyse and document the unfolding interaction between human(s) and robot(s) through a model of interaction where the roles of leader and follower shape the forms of collaborative behaviour. We illustrate our design toolkit in action and demonstrate how it can be used to analyse existing cases of HRC, or aid in exploring new applications and scenarios. We exemplify its use for the case of collaborative drawing, where human and robot jointly create a single drawing on a shared canvas in close proximity.