Towards Seamless Human-Robot Handovers

Abstract

A handover is a complex collaboration, where actors coordinate in time and space to transfer control of an object. This coordination comprises two processes: the physical process of moving to get close enough to transfer the object, and the cognitive process of exchanging information to guide the transfer. Despite this complexity, we humans are capable of performing handovers seamlessly in a wide variety of situations, even when unexpected. This suggests a common procedure that guides all handover interactions. Our goal is to codify that procedure. To that end, we first study how people hand objects to each other in order to understand their coordination process and the signals and cues that they use and observe with their partners. Based on these studies, we propose a coordination structure for human-robot handovers that considers the physical and social-cognitive aspects of the interaction separately. This handover structure describes how people approach, reach out their hands, and transfer objects while simultaneously coordinating the what, when, and where of handovers: to agree that the handover will happen (and with what object), to establish the timing of the handover, and to decide the configuration at which the handover will occur. We experimentally evaluate human-robot handover behaviors that exploit this structure, and offer design implications for seamless human-robot handover interactions.

Probabilistic movement primitives for coordination of multiple human–robot collaborative tasks

“…As previously investigated (Strabala et al, 2013), these steps range from (1) the social-cognitive cues that establish the connection between the giver and the taker, (2) the coordination of the location and the resulting trajectory as a function of preferences and socially acceptable movements (Sisbot & Alami, 2012), and (3) the final physical transfer that comprises interaction forces and compliances (Kupcsik, Hsu, & Lee, 2015).…”

Autonomous Object Handover Using Wrist Tactile Information

“…For instance, human-to-human handovers [13] are composed of three main stages: reaching the receiving agent, signaling the intention to do a handover, and passing the object to the receiver. In this work, we study handovers of objects between a human and a robot (object reception) and vice-versa (object releasing).…”

Developing Robot Assistants with Communicative Cues for Safe, Fluent HRI

“…14.3. An example of a non-explicit cue would be when a person inadvertently looks towards the location where they intend to hand an object over to someone else [1,17,23]; or the sensation of feeling another person managing the weight of an object that is handed over, allowing it to be released [3,4].…”

“…Explicit cues are intentional behaviors performed with the purpose of communication, such as when one performs a hand gesture [6,8,9,21]. Non-explicit cues are unintentionally performed, but broadcast intentions or other important information, such as when a person looks toward where they are about to hand an object to another person [1,17,23]. We posit that naturalistic communicative cues allow users to quickly benefit from collaboration with robots with minimal effort and training, and that through such communicative cues, it is possible to develop interfaces that are safe, transparent, natural, and predictable.…”

“…The CARIS Laboratory has invested significant effort in the development of natural, fluent human-robot handovers [2-4, 9, 10, 17]. Handover behaviors include not only visual cues [1,2,9,10,17,23], but also important force and haptic cues [3,4]. Other physical interaction studies, which have been carried out in conjunction with the Sensory Perception & INteraction (SPIN) Laboratory at UBC, include interactions in which participants tap and push on the robot to guide its behavior [5].…”