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Overview
Although robots seem to possess fantastic skills in science fiction
movies, it would surprise many people to learn howmuch still needs to be
done to endow today' s service robots with the ability to do relatively
simple tasks. One of the most challenging problems is that of giving
the robot an understanding of how to interact with human beings. The
interaction between two people is natural since they understand each
other, in contrast to the interaction between a robot and a person. One
research focus of the Center for intelligent Systems' laboratories is
on the development of improved human-robot interaction (HRI) techniques,
both for sophisticated humanoid robots as well as for mobile robots.
In the case of a humanoid robot, it is desirable to
use some natural communication means such as voice or gesture
recognition systems. The humanoid should imitate a human being in some
ways. For example, it should have "ears" to localize a person speaking
around the robot, and it should even be able to understand, at some
level, what the person is saying. It should also have "eyes" (vision
system) for looking around and extracting features from its environment,
as people do. In addition, the robot should be able to track someone as
they move around, speak, and make other noises. The robot should not be
restricted to human-like capabilities. It may have some sensing
abilities that humans do not. For example, it is not possible for a
person, with their eyes closed, to detect and track another moving
person when that person does not make any noise. However, a robot
equipped with an infrared sensor array can sense human movement and
localize the person, even in a darkened room.
Humanoid Robotic
Research
The Cognitive Robotics Lab (CRL)
(See
http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/CIS/CRL) is the home for our humanoid
robot, ISAC (Intelligent Soft-Arm Control), which was designed and built
within the lab, initially as a robotic aid to the physically-challenged.
Although it can still perform that function, our more recent research
emphasis has been on general problems of human-robot interaction. ISAC
has two 6-degree-of-freedom arms actuated by pneumatic McKibben
Artificial Muscles. These were manufactured by Bridgestone, who called
them " SoftArms" . ISAC has anthropomorphic, hand-like end effectors,
built in-house. To complete the arm-hand systems, ISAC has 6-axis
force-torque sensors at each wrist, proximity sensors on the palms, and
rudimentary touch sensors on each finger. ISAC employs color, stereo,
active vision with pan, tilt, and verge, sonic localization, infrared
motion detection, and speech I/O. Although its sensory-motor suite is
not nearly as rich as those of a vertebrate animal, the diversity of its
sensory modalities coupled with its 18 degrees of freedom in motion have
enabled us to equip ISAC with a number of complex behaviors.
Human-Humanoid Interaction (HHI) Framework
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