Multimodal sensor-based human-robot collaboration in assembly tasks

James Male, Gorkem Anil Al, Arya Shabani, Uriel Martinez-Hernandez

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceedingChapter in a published conference proceeding

6 Citations (SciVal)
79 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This work presents a framework for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in assembly tasks that uses multimodal sensors, perception and control methods. First, vision sensing is employed for user identification to determine the collaborative task to be performed. Second, assembly actions and hand gestures are recognised using wearable inertial measurement units (IMUs) and convolutional neural networks (CNN) to identify when robot collaboration is needed and bring the next object to the user for assembly. If collaboration is not required, then the robot performs a solo task. Third, the robot arm uses time domain features from tactile sensors to detect when an object has been touched and grasped for handover actions in the assembly process. These multimodal sensors and computational modules are integrated in a layered control architecture for HRC collaborative assembly tasks. The proposed framework is validated in real-time using a Universal Robot arm (UR3) to collaborate with humans for assembling two types of objects 1) a box and 2) a small chair, and to work on a solo task of moving a stack of Lego blocks when collaboration with the user is not needed. The experiments show that the robot is capable of sensing and perceiving the state of the surrounding environment using multimodal sensors and computational methods to act and collaborate with humans to complete assembly tasks successfully.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication2022 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2022 - Proceedings
Place of PublicationU. S. A.
PublisherIEEE
Pages1266-1271
Number of pages6
ISBN (Electronic)9781665452588
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Oct 2022
Event2022 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2022 - Prague, Czech Republic
Duration: 9 Oct 202212 Oct 2022

Publication series

NameConference Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
Volume2022-October
ISSN (Print)1062-922X

Conference

Conference2022 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, SMC 2022
Country/TerritoryCzech Republic
CityPrague
Period9/10/2212/10/22

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), The Republic of Turkey Ministry of National Education and the Centre for Autonomous Robotics (CENTAUR).

Keywords

  • assembly tasks
  • human-robot collaboration
  • vision and touch sensing
  • wearable sensing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Human-Computer Interaction

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