NRI: INT: Agile and Dynamic Interactions for Mobile Manipulation

这笔拨款支持研究开发能够安全有效地在仓库、家庭、医院和商店等拥挤空间与人一起工作的机器人。该项目的目标是提高生活质量，特别是老年人的生活质量，促进国家繁荣。在拥挤的空间工作意味着机器人要与人和物体直接接触，比如门、架子和轮椅。因此，安全是最重要的，机器人需要给人类让路，同时也要帮助他们。机器人与人和物体的互动在本质上往往是动态的。例如，机器人可能需要用手扶着绊倒的人，或者它可能需要用自己身体的重量打开沉重的门。像这样的动态交互超出了机器人目前的能力。该项目使用了一种新型机器人，它可以在一个球上保持平衡，同时能够安全地与人互动。该奖项对人类和机器人的动态交互进行基础研究，以高效、稳健和安全的方式完成具有挑战性的任务。该项目为人类如何与周围环境互动提供了更深入的了解，这也可以在未来用于改进人体工程学设计和假肢手臂。该研究团队还在为协作和辅助机器人开发新的算法、设计和控制器，这可能会带来广泛的社会效益。机器人能够进行安全的动态交互，具有持续的适应和快速的反应，代表了当前方法的范式转变。本研究提供了对全身动态交互任务的端到端研究。该研究为一系列人类受试者研究做出了贡献，这些研究将提供人类动态相互作用的知识。它还为规划、机器学习和动态交互的实时控制开发了新的动态交互模型和新方法。为了使这项研究成为可能，研究小组将利用一种独特的动态稳定和灵活的移动机械手：卡内基梅隆大学的圆球机器人。人体大小的球机器人在单球轮上运动，具有内在顺应性的全向运动，并配备两个人体尺度的7自由度手臂和手。在这个机器人平台上展示了对动态交互、规划、学习和控制的研究贡献，并通过一系列不同的综合任务进行了严格的评估，包括合作搬运、手动轮椅的操纵、合作任务教学、坐到站的机动和混乱空间的动态导航。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This grant supports research into developing robots that can safely and efficiently work alongside people in crowded spaces, such as warehouses, homes, hospitals, and stores. The goal of the project is to improve quality of life, especially for the elderly, and advance national prosperity. Working in crowded spaces means that the robot comes into direct physical contact with humans and objects, such as doors, shelves, and wheelchairs. Safety is therefore of paramount importance, and the robot needs to give way to humans while also helping them. The robot's interactions with people and objects are often dynamic in nature. For example, a robot may need to physically support a stumbling person while guiding them by the hand, or it may need to use the weight of its own body to open a heavy door. Dynamic interactions like these are beyond the current capabilities of robots. The project uses a new type of robot that balances on a single ball while being able to safely interact with people. The award performs fundamental research into dynamic interactions, by humans and robots, for accomplishing challenging tasks in an efficient, robust, and safe manner. The project provides a deeper understanding of how humans interact with their surroundings, which can also be used in the future for improving ergonomic designs and prosthetic arms. The research team is also developing new algorithms, designs, and controllers for collaborative and assistive robots, which have the potential for widespread societal benefits. Robots capable of safe dynamic interactions, with continuous adaptation and fast reactions, represents a paradigm shift from current approaches. The research provides an end-to-end study of full-body dynamic interaction tasks. The research contributes a series of human subject studies that will provide knowledge of human dynamic interactions. It also develops new dynamic interaction models and novel methods for planning, machine learning, and real-time control of dynamic interactions. To make this research possible, the research team will be utilizing a unique dynamically stable and agile mobile manipulator: the Carnegie Mellon University ballbot. The person-size ballbot locomotes on a single ball wheel, providing omnidirectional motion with intrinsic compliance, and is equipped with two human-scale 7-degree-of-freedom arms with hands. Research contributions to dynamic interaction, planning, learning, and control are demonstrated on this robot platform and rigorously evaluated through a diverse set of integrative tasks, including cooperative carrying, maneuvering a manual wheelchair, cooperative task teaching, sit-to-stand maneuvers, and dynamic navigation in cluttered spaces.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.