Leeds University is leading a project which aims to develop a human-robot interaction control strategy enabling robots to recognise human behaviour and adapt in real-time
Flexible, Robust and Efficient Physical Human-Robot Interaction (FREEpHRI) is funded by an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Fellowship. It aims to enable robots to flexibly respond to human partners completing joint-tasks in industries including manufacturing and healthcare.
Dr. Zhenhong Li, a research fellow in Leeds’ School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering is leading the research, told The Engineer: “In recent decades, robots have demonstrated their superiority in increasing productivity, efficiency and consistency in the manufacturing of products.
“Now, we aim to put humans back into the development and production process. By taking the advantage of robots’ precision and humans’ creativity, we may create a better system that can provide individualised products and services.”
The control strategy uses a two-player differential game to model human-robot interaction behaviours, and learning techniques to compensate the effects of unknown dynamics and external disturbances.
A cost function implying motor capability will be assigned to the human partner, and the robot will adjust its role (collaborator or competitor) according to the real-time estimation of the human cost function.
Additionally, the team will introduce an efficient self-triggered role adaption mechanism. The triggering mechanism uses the performance of the human-robot system and the estimated human behaviour to detect the role changes of the human, and triggers the robot to change its role when necessary.
Researchers will evaluate the reliability and functionality of the proposed techniques through an exemplar application in physical robot-assisted rehabilitation. The proposed techniques will be used to achieve typical training strategies such as passive, assist-as-needed and challenge-based, initially in laboratory settings. It will then trial the model in the Leeds Teaching Hospital rehabilitation service.
The technologies developed in this fellowship will also provide a general framework for designing an interactive robot control system.
The fellowship objectives will be delivered collaboratively with partners from the University of Leeds, the University of the West of England Bristol, the University of Manchester, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Devices for Dignity, YIRUIDE Medical and DIH/Hocoma.
