Controller synthesis for human-robot cooperative swinging of rigid objects based on human-human experiments

Cooperative dynamic object manipulation extends the manipulation capabilities of human-robot dyads. This paper investigates cooperative swinging of rigid objects with the goal of reaching a desired level of energy, i.e. a desired object height. A human-human pilot study indicates that the arm-object-arm system can be approximated by a simple pendulum with two-sided unidirectional pulsed torque actuation. Based on the results of the human-human experiments, a robotic leader and follower controller are synthesized. Multi-body simulations based on human-like parameters successfully replicate the characteristics observed in the human-human experiments.