Object transportation by a human and a mobile manipulator : a dynamical systems approach

In this paper we address the problem of humanrobot joint transportation of large payloads. The human brings to the task knowledge on the goal destination and global path planning. The robot has no prior knowledge of the environment and must autonomously help the human, while simultaneously avoiding static and/or dynamic obstacles that it encounters. For this purpose a dynamic control architecture, formalized as a coupled system of non-linear differential equations, is designed to control the behavior of the mobile manipulator in close loop with the acquired sensorial information. Verbal communication is integrated that allows the robot to communicate its limitations. Results show the robot’s ability to generate stable, smooth and robust behavior in unstructured and dynamic environments. Furthermore, the robot is able to explain the difficulties it encounters and thus contribute to success of the task and to enhance the human-robot physical interaction.