Human-robot interaction - What we learned from robot helpers and dance partner robots

This talk addresses issues relating to human-robot interaction based on our developments of robot helpers and dance partner robots. First, Mobile Robot Helper and Distributed Robot Helpers are introduced as assistive systems for handling an object in coordination with a human. These robots are controlled passively based on intentional force/moment applied to the object by its user. Through several past experiments, the limitation of the coordination based on intentional-force -based-control was unveiled, although the concept could be applied to some kinds of tasks. A dance partner robot is then introduced as a research platform for human-robot interaction. A Dance Partner Robot, PBDR (Partner Ballroom Dance Robot), has been developed for Aichi Expo in 2005. It dances a waltz as a female dancer together with a human male dancer. A waltz, a ballroom dance, consists of several steps, and the step transition is controlled by a male dancer based on a transition rule. The transition rule allows the male dancer to select a step from a class of steps determined for the current step, and the female dance partner estimates the following step through physical interactions with the male dancer. The dance partner robot has a database about the waltz and its transition rule, which is used to estimate the following dance step and to generate an appropriate step motion. The step estimation is done based on the time-series data of force/torque applied by the male dancer to the upper body of the robot. The robot motion is generated for the estimated step using the step motion in the database compliantly against the interface force/moment between the human dancer and the robot in real time. We are continuing the development of the robot, and the current version could watch the humanpsilas dance step all the time during the dance and if the step is different from the estimated one, the step is corrected according to the humanpsilas step. The development of the dance partner robot sugge- - sts us important issues for future robots having interaction with a human. Finally, why we are developing the dance partner robot and how the concept will be applied to other systems will be also discussed in the talk.