Design and implementation of human-robot collaborative control for wheeled mobile robots

In this study, a human-robot collaborative control system is presented for the navigation control of wheeled mobile robots (WMRs). This system aims to provide the mobility assistance for the elderly or the disabled to whom the effectiveness and safety in mobility should be more enhanced. In the proposed control system, two frameworks of operation models are developed. The first model is autonomous wall-following in which the WMR can automatically follow walls with a predefined offset while avoid obstacles. The other model provides the easy-to-use operation for users, and in this mode the motion WMR will be guided to where user intends to be. The switch scheme between the two modes can be activated by RFID sensing which is installed in the fork so that the WMR can wait for the command from the user. Through the experimental results, the developed control system demonstrates the effectiveness for human-robot collaborative navigation on the WMR.