Multisensor System for Safer Human-Robot Interaction

The development of a system for automatically locating and tracking a human in the vicinity of a robot is described. The system consists of multiple passive infrared (PIR) sensors, two color cameras, a pair of microwave sensors and a pair of PCs for data collection, signal processing and data fusion. The cameras are treated as individual sensors rather than a stereo pair to minimize the affect of occlusion by the robot. The area around the robot is subdivided into an occupancy grid with 0.5m by 0.5m cells. A data fusion algorithm, based on Dempster-Shafer evidence theory, is used to estimate the probability of human occupancy for each cell. This information is used to estimate the human’s location. A novel concept termed a “protective cell” is introduced to further increase the human’s safety in the presence of sensor uncertainty. Experimental results are included demonstrating the system’s effectiveness.