Lecture HFR2011
Human-Friendly Robotics: Human factors in control and planning strategies
Facts
Block lectures:
- 12.08.2011: Block course 3 x 1.5h (room 00.13.009A)
- Lecture 1: 10:30-12:00
- Lecture 2: 13:00-14:30
- Lecture 3: 15:00-16:30
- 16.08.2011: Block course 4 x 1.5h (room 00.13.009A)
- Lecture 1: 10:30-12:00
- Lecture 2: 13:00-14:30
- Lecture 3: 15:00-16:30
- 19.08.2011: Block course 3 x 1.5h at DLR
- Lecture 1: 10:30-12:00
- Lab tour: 13:00-14:30
- Lecture 2: 15:00-16:30
This last block course takes place at "DLR Institut für Robotik und Mechatronik", Hörsaal 2 (you can find information about the way to DLR here: www.dlr.de/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-362/8073_read-7297/)
Oral exam dates (scheduling are provided at I6, where you should enter your preferred date and time)
- 24.08.2011: whole day
- 25.08.2011: whole day
Abstract
The lecture Human-Friendly Robotics: Human factors in control and planning strategies gives an overview on the design, dynamics, control, and motion generation of robots developed for human environments. First, we review the history of robotics in order to integrate the chosen lecture topics into the broader picture of robotics research and industrial relevance, leading to a clear image of what characterizes human-friendly robotics and what the main challenges are. This new emerging field focuses on designing robots especially for industrial and domestic human environments are designed and operated fundamentally different from classical industrial ones. Their characteristics make it possible to realize powerful and versatile applications for unknown and dynamic environments, incorporating the implicit uncertainties and potentially dangerous situations generated by human presence. In order to fully capture the implications of this paradigm shift, we discuss the theoretical foundations from various points of view, ranging from robot modeling and control to sophisticated motion planning algorithms.
Based on robot modeling for classical stiff mechanisms the first part of the lecture surveys the fundamentals on mechanical design and dynamic modelling of robots with flexible elements. We introduce the flexible joint and variable impedance models, which are especially necessary for lightweight and intrinsically compliant designs and introduce numerous theoretical problems to be solved for achieving high performance control. An important aspect is how to achieve safety by means of physical design and how to quantify the influence of these inherent robot properties.
In the next part the foundations for robot control are given, taking special notice of how to integrate the human into the loop and make haptic interaction an integral part of human-robot interaction. The discussed topics range from perception and actuation aspects to methods for motion and compliance control based on highly sensorized robot designs. The use of contact information possibly generated by human-robot contact is here of major focus. Furthermore, the integration of exteroceptive sensing is crucial to enhance and extend low-level control algorithms in order to generate more complex behavior for convenient and safe human-robot interaction. After providing the theoretical basis for advanced control methods, we give an overview on reactive motion generation algorithms, which provide local real-time collision avoidance for circumventing objects based on various kinds of external sensors. These serve mainly as non-contact perception mechanisms and are combined with the low-level control, leading to more sophisticated robot behavior. Furthermore, these methods are well suited for combining vision and force information such that they provide even more convenient human-friendliness. Since these local methods are usually only used for quick reaction cycles and not for calculating complex global paths in cluttered environments, the last part of the lecture explains the fundamentals of global motion planning in dynamic environments. We discuss some of the most prominent examples and analyze their potential for humanfriendly robotics. Recently, some approaches, which differences from previous methods are outlined, were developed that take into account for human factors in order to plan safe and convenient motions for humans under the task premise.
Syllabus
1) Introduction
• A short history of robotics
• What is Human-Friendly Robotics?
2) Mechanical design and dynamic modelling for safety and performance
• Stiff robots
• Robots with flexible elements
• Intrinsically compliant robots
• Safety for physical Human-Robot Interaction
3) Control methods for unknown environments and Human-Robot Interaction
• Perception and actuation
• Impedance control
• Collision detection and reaction
4) Reactive motion generation and motion planning
- Environment perception
- Static motion generation
- Reactive motion generation in real-time
- Motion planning algorithms
- Obstacle avoidance techniques
Lecture material
Literature
- A Mathematical Introduction to Robotic Manipulation: Richard M. Murray, Zexiang Li, S. Shankar Sastry
- Robot Modeling and Control: Mark W. Spong, Seth Hutchinson, M. Vidyasagar
- Springer Handbook of Robotics: Eds. Bruno Siciliano, Oussama Khatib
- Oussama Khatib, Lecture Notes: Advanced Robotics Manipulation
- Oussama Khatib: Inertial Properties in Robotic Manipulation: An Object Level Framework, Int. J. of Robotics Research, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1995, pp. 3-19.
- H. Choset, K. Lynch, S. Hutchinson, G. Kantor, W. Burgard, L. Kavraki, and S. Thrun. Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementation. MIT Press, 2005.