Robot-human hand-overs in non-anthropomorphic robots

Robots that assist and interact with humans will inevitably require to successfully achieve the task of handing over objects. Whether it is to deliver desired objects for the elderly living in their homes or hand tools to a worker in a factory, the process of robot hand-overs is one worthy study within the human robot interaction community. While the study of object hand-overs have been studied in previous works [1], these works have mainly considered anthropomorphic robots, that is, robots that appear and move similar to humans. However, recent trends within robotics, and in particular domestic robotics have witnessed an increase in non-anthropomorphic robotic platforms such as moving tables [2], teleconferencing robots [3] and vacuum cleaners. The study of robot hand-over for non-anthropomorphic robots and in particular the study of what constitute a successful hand-over is at focus in this paper. For the purpose of investigation, the TurtleBot¹, which is a moving table like device is used in a home environment.