Human Machine Interaction and Communication in Cooperative Actions

Abstract

Many human activities are performed in groups and require that the individuals in the group coordinate their actions. For example, carrying bulky objects, dancing, handshaking, musicians playing together in an orchestra are examples of joint actions. A crucial aspect of joint action is that it requires that the partners share information and communicate to update the information in order to be able to coordinate their actions. This Chapter focuses on emergent coordination, implicit communication in human-robot cooperative actions, which rely on subtle cues about the body and the movement of partners. In particular, this Chapter describes research that analyzes whether and under which conditions a robotic device can trigger this form of covert communication with a human partner. It also focuses on physical interaction with robots, a crucial form of interaction in many types of joint action. It presents work done to develop novel compliant actuation technologies that aim at facilitating physical interaction between a robot and a person and it illustrates the importance of being able to read the state of the partners in the context of robot-assisted rehabilitation of the upper-limb. A characteristic of the research on human-robot interaction presented in this chapter is to be closely inspired by our current understanding of the human sensory, motor and cognitive systems. As a matter of fact, a deep understanding of humans’ body and mind appears crucial to develop machines and robots, whether they have a humanoid appearance or not, that can interact closely and cooperate with humans.