Human-Robot Collaborative Control for Handling and Transfer Objects

Abstract

The document proposes the development of a 3D virtual environment, oriented to the common work activities between a unicycle type mobile manipulator robot and a human operator, in collaborative tasks. This strategy is focuses on the incorporation of virtual reality (VR), in which the operator will have access to visualize in an immersive way the behavior of the mobile manipulator robot in common tasks where the human being and the mobile manipulator robot interact. For the interaction between the human operator and the mobile manipulator robot, the graphic engine Unity 3D is used, which exchanges information with the mathematical software Matlab, in order to execute the control algorithm through the use of shared memories. The Novint Falcon haptic device allows human-robot interaction, which provides the operator with force feedback on what is happening in the virtual environment generated by the Unity 3D software and the interaction it has with the mobile manipulator. The HTC Vive immersion device allows the operator to visualize the virtual environment created for the execution of the task. In this work, the design and simulation of the locomotion system of a mobile manipulator robot is carried out for manipulation and object transfer tasks together with the human operator. Finally, the simulation results that validate the proposed control strategy are presented and discussed.