Analyzing the Effects of Human-Aware Motion Planning on Close-Proximity Human–Robot Collaboration. (February 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lasota, Przemyslaw A.; Shah, Julie A.
• Other Names: Marras William S. guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Human factors. Volume 57:Number 1(2015)
• Page Start: 21
• Page End: 33
• Publication Date: 2015-02
• Subjects: human–robot interaction -- motion-level adaptation -- team fluency -- human satisfaction; Human engineering -- Periodicals; 620.82
• DOI: 10.1177/0018720814565188
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0018-7208

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this work was to examine human response to motion-level robot adaptation to determine its effect on team fluency, human satisfaction, and perceived safety and comfort. Background: The evaluation of human response to adaptive robotic assistants has been limited, particularly in the realm of motion-level adaptation. The lack of true human-in-the-loop evaluation has made it impossible to determine whether such adaptation would lead to efficient and satisfying human–robot interaction. Method: We conducted an experiment in which participants worked with a robot to perform a collaborative task. Participants worked with an adaptive robot incorporating human-aware motion planning and with a baseline robot using shortest-path motions. Team fluency was evaluated through a set of quantitative metrics, and human satisfaction and perceived safety and comfort were evaluated through questionnaires. Results: When working with the adaptive robot, participants completed the task 5.57% faster, with 19.9% more concurrent motion, 2.96% less human idle time, 17.3% less robot idle time, and a 15.1% greater separation distance. Questionnaire responses indicated that participants felt safer and more comfortable when working with an adaptive robot and were more satisfied with it as a teammate than with the standard robot. Conclusion: People respond well to motion-level robot adaptation, and significant benefits can be achieved from its use in terms of both human–robot team fluency and human worker satisfaction. Application: Our conclusion supports the development of technologies that could be used to implement human-aware motion planning in collaborative robots and the use of this technique for close-proximity human–robot collaboration.