Abstract
Safe planning and control is essential to bringing human-robot interaction into common experience. This paper presents an integrated human−robot interaction strategy that ensures the safety of the human participant through a coordinated suite of safety strategies that are selected and implemented to anticipate and respond to varying time horizons for potential hazards and varying expected levels of interaction with the user. The proposed planning and control strategies are based on explicit measures of danger during interaction. The level of danger is estimated based on factors influencing the impact force during a human-robot collision, such as the effective robot inertia, the relative velocity and the distance between the robot and the human.
A second key requirement for improving safety is the ability of the robot to perceive its environment, and more specifically, human behavior and reaction to robot movements. This paper also proposes and demonstrates the use of human monitoring information based on vision and physiological sensors to further improve the safety of the human robot interaction. A methodology for integrating sensor-based information about the user's position and physiological reaction to the robot into medium and short-term safety strategies is presented. This methodology is verified through a series of experimental test cases where a human and an articulated robot respond to each other based on the human's physical and physiological behavior.
Similar content being viewed by others
Explore related subjects
Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.Notes
The five Activities of Daily Living (ADL) are: (i) transferring to and from bed, (ii) dressing, (iii) feeding, (iv) bathing, (v) toileting.
The sagittal plane is the vertical plane (plane of symmetry) passing through the center of the outstretched robot arm.
References
Arai, H., Takubo, T., Hayashibara, Y., and Tanie, K. 2000. Human-robot cooperative manipulation using a virtual nonholonomic constraint. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 4063–4069.
Barraquand, J. and Latombe, J.-C. 1991. Robot motion planning: A distributed representation approach. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 10(6):628–649.
Bearveldt, A.J. 1993. Cooperation between man and robot: Interface and safety. In IEEE International Workshop on Robot Human Communication, pp. 183–187.
Bicchi, A. and Tonietti, G. 2004. Fast and “Soft-Arm” tactics. IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 11(2):22–33.
Bicchi, A., Rizzini, S.L., and Tonietti, G. 2001. Compliant design for intrinsic safety: General issues and preliminary design. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 1864–1869.
Bischoff, R. and Graefe, V. 2004. HERMES—A versatile personal robotic assistant. Proceedings of the IEEE, 92(11):1759–1779.
Bradley, M.M. 2000. Emotion and motivation. In Handbook of Psychophysiology, 2nd edn. Cacioppo, J.T., Tassinary, L.G., and Berntson, G.G. (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 602–642.
Bradley, M.M. and Lang, P.J. 2000. Measuring emotion: Behavior, feeling and physiology. In Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotion, Lane, R.D. and Nadel L. (Eds.), Oxford University Press, New York.
Breazeal, C. 2001. Socially intelligent robots: research, development, and applications. In IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 2121–2126.
Brock, O. and Khatib, O. 2002. Elastic strips: A framework for motion generation in human environments. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 21(12):1031–1053.
Brownley, K.A. 2000. Cardiovascular psychophysiology. In Handbook of Psychophysiology, Cacioppo, J.T., Tassinary, L.G., and Berntson, G.G. (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Corke, P.I. 1999. Safety of advanced robots in human environments. Discussion Paper for IARP, Online.
Dawson, M.E. 2000. The electrodermal system. In Handbook of Psychophysiology, Cacioppo, J.T., Tassinary, L.G., and Berntson, G.G. (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Fernandez, V., Balaguer, C., Blanco, D., and Salichs, M.A. 2001. Active human—Mobile manipulator cooperation through intention recognition. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2668—2673.
Guglielmelli, E., Dario, P., Laschi, C., and Fontanelli, R. 1996. Humans and technologies at home: From friendly appliances to robotic interfaces. In IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Communication, pp. 71–79.
Heinzmann, J. and Zelinsky, A. 1999. Building human—Friendly robot systems. In International Symposium of Robotics Research, pp. 305–312.
Heinzmann, J. and Zelinsky, A. 2003. Quantitative safety guarantees for physical human-robot interaction. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 22(7–8):479–504.
Ikuta, K. and Nokata, M. 2003. Safety evaluation method of design and control for human-care robots. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 22(5):281–297.
Kawamura, K., Bagchi, S., Iskarous, M., and Bishay, M. 1995. Intelligent robotic systems in service of the disabled. IEEE Transactions on Rehabilitation Engineering, 3(1):14–21.
Khatib, O. 1986. Real-time obstacle avoidance for manipulators and mobile robots. The International Journal of Robotics Research, 5(1):90–98.
Kosuge, K. and Hirata, Y. 2004. Human-Robot interaction. In International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics, pp. 8–10.
Kulić, D. 2005. Safety for human-robot interaction. Ph.D. Thesis: University of British Columbia.
Kulić, D. and Croft, E. 2003. Estimating intent for human-robot interaction. In IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics, pp. 810–815.
Kulić, D. and Croft, E. 2005a. Safe planning for human-robot interaction. Journal of Robotic Systems, 22(7):383–396.
Kulić, D. and Croft, E. 2005b. Anxiety detection during human-robot interaction. In IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 389–394.
Kulić, D. and Croft, E. 2006. Safety based control strategy for human-robot interaction. Journal of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 54(1):1–12.
Lang, P.J. 1995. The emotion probe: Studies of motivation and attention. American Psychologist, 50(5):372–385.
Latombe, J.-C. 1991. Robot Motion Planning. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA.
Macfarlane, S. and Croft, E. 2003. Jerk-Bounded Robot trajectory planning—Design for real-time applications. IEEE Transactions on Robotics and Automation, 19(1):42–52.
Matsumoto, Y., Heinzmann, J., and Zelinsky, A. 1999. The essential components of human—Friendly robot systems. In International Conference on Field and Service Robotics, pp. 43–51.
Matsumoto, Y., Ogasawara, T., and Zelinsky, A. 2000. Behavior recognition based on head pose and gaze direction measurement. In IEEE International Conference on Ingelligent Robots and Systems, pp. 2127–2132.
Morita, T., Iwata, H., and Sugano, S. 1999. Development of a human symbiotic robot: WENDY. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3183–3188.
Nokata, M., Ikuta, K., and Ishii, H. 2002. Safety-optimizing method of human-care robot design and control. In Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 1991–1996.
Pantic, M. and Rothkrantz, L.J.M. 2000. Automatic analysis of facial expressions: The state of the art. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 22(12):1424–1445.
Pentland, A. 2000. Perceptual intelligence. Communications of the ACM, 43(3):35–44.
Picard, R. 1997. Affective Computing. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachussetts.
Picard, R. 2001. Toward machine emotional intelligence: Analysis of affective physiological state. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 23(10):1175–1191.
Pt. Grey Bumblebee. In http://www.ptgrey.com/products/bumblebee/index.html
Rani, P., Sims, J., Brackin, R., and Sarkar, N. 2002. Online stress detection using phychophysiological signals for implicit human-robot cooperation. Robotica, 20:673–685.
Rani, P., Sarkar, N., Smith, C.A., and Kirby, L.D. 2004. Anxiety detecting robotic system—towards implicit human-robot collaboration. Robotica, 22:85–95.
RIA/ANSI 1999. RIA/ANSI R15.06—1999 American National Standard for Industrial Robots and Robot Systems—Safety Requirements. American National Standards Institute. New York.
Traver, V.J., del Pobil, A.P., and Perez-Francisco, M. 2000. Making service robots human-safe. In IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2000), pp. 696–701.
Tsuji, T. and Kaneko, M. 1999. Noncontact impedance control for redundant manipulators. In IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics—Part A: Systems and Humans, 29(2):184–193.
Sarkar, N. 2002. Psychophysiological control architecture for human-robot coordination—concepts and initial experiments. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3719–3724.
Song, W.K., Kim, D. J., Kim, J. S., and Bien, Z. 2001. Visual servoing for a user's mouth with effective attention reading in a wheelchair-based robotic arm. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 3662–3667.
Stiefelhagen, R., Yang, J., and Waibel, A. 2001. Tracking focus of attention for human-robot communication. In IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots.
Thought Technology Ltd., in www.thoughttechnology.com
Wada, K., Shibata, T., Saito, T., and Tanie, K. 2004. Effects of robot-assisted activity for elderly people and nurses at a day service center. Proceedings of the IEEE, 92(11):1780–1788.
Weiner, J.M., Hanley, R.J., Clark, R., and Van Nostrand, J.F. 1990. Measuring the activities of daily living: Comparisons across national surveys. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, 45(6):229–237.
Yamada, Y., Hirawawa, Y., Huang, S., Umetani, Y., and Suita, K. 1997. Human—Robot contact in the safeguarding space. IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, 2(4):230–236.
Yamada, Y., Yamamoto, T., Morizono, T., and Umetani, Y. 1999. FTA-based issues on securing human safety in a Human/Robot coexistance system. In IEEE Systems, Man and Cybernetics, pp. 1068–1063.
Zinn, M., Khatib, O., Roth, B., and Salisbury, J.K. 2002. Towards a human-centered intrinsically safe robotic manipulator. In Workshop on Technology Challenges for Dependable Robots in Human Environments.
Zinn, M., Khatib, O., and Roth, B. 2004. A new actuation approach for human friendly robot design. In IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 249–254.
Zurada, J., Wright, A.L., and Graham, J.H. 2001. A neuro-fuzzy approach for robot system safety. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics—Part C: Applications and Reviews, 31(1):49–64.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kulić, D., Croft, E. Pre-collision safety strategies for human-robot interaction. Auton Robot 22, 149–164 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-006-9009-4
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10514-006-9009-4