Extended reality (XR) work-cell for safe human-centered robotics research

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Human-centered robotics has emerged as one the most influential research topics in the robotics community and automation industry for it is an integral aspect of safe functioning of all robotic technologies in real-world scenarios. This project aims to create a design, development and evaluation work-cell for human-centered autonomous robot research with emphasis on safety. It will enable simulated and experimental research on human-robot collaboration (HRC), effective multi-modal human-machine communication and collaborative robots (co-bots). Synergy between robots and humans in a shared work-cell provides a compelling solution to the challenges faced by many industries including agile manufacturing and highly customizable production. In a typical HRC scenario, robots are meant to carry out dangerous, non-ergonomic and repetitive tasks while the human partners concentrate on cognitive decision making and nonconventional tasks leading to improved throughput and quality. A heterogenous setup of humans and robots working collaboratively requires real-time communication between all agents. From a practical standpoint, an important research question is what combination of, and to what extent, different communication means among human and robot agents can provide a safe and continuous operation in the noisy, crowded and highly dynamic environments. This means that the discovery of effective multi-modal communications with the natural fluency and seamless team dynamics of HRC will lead to a dramatic paradigm shift in broad industries such as automation and manufacturing. The aim of the proposed research is to investigate promising communication means (e.g., visual, gestural and body language) and protocols (i.e., both real and virtual) for coordination of tasks achieved through multiple input channels (modes) that are natural to human operators in industrial settings. The robot work-cell will also strengthen current industry collaborations in the areas of manufacturing, social and industrial robotics, and autonomous vehicles, while fostering new partnerships beyond the existing ones. The applicant and his co-applicants need the equipment to spearhead their human-centered robotics research initiative. Access to the robot work-cell will accelerate research progress in this time-sensitive area, help students disseminate verifiable results in their theses and publications, improve the technology readiness of the prototypes developed, and facilitate innovations in industrial automation and cyber-physical systems. To that end, the proposed work-cell will provide a free-access and equitable HQP training platform for not only over 50 graduate students and postdocs from a diverse group in terms of gender, background, and academic preparedness and discipline but also external users who can connect to the work-cell remotely and benefit from the setup through its simulation, data generation, and virtual reality capabilities.