Publication

Unfreezing Social Navigation: Dynamical Systems based Compliance for Contact Control in Robot Navigation

Abstract

Large efforts have focused on ensuring that the controllers for mobile service robots follow proxemics and other social rules to ensure both safe and socially acceptable distance to pedestrians. Nonetheless, involuntary contact may be unavoidable when the robot travels in crowded areas or when encountering adversarial pedestrians. Freezing the robot in response to contact might be detrimental to bystanders' safety and prevents it from achieving its task. Unavoidable contacts must hence be controlled to ensure the safe and smooth travelling of robots in pedestrian alleys. We present a force-limited and obstacle avoidance controller integrated into a time-invariant dynamical system (DS) in a closed-loop force controller that let the robot react instantaneously to contact or to the sudden appearance of pedestrians. Mitigating the risk of collision is done by modulating the velocity commands upon detecting a contact and by absorbing part of the contact force through active compliant control when the robot bumps inadvertently against a pedestrian. We evaluated our method with a personal mobility robot -Qolo- showing contact mitigation with passive and active compliance. We showed the robot able to overcome an adversarial pedestrian within 9 N of the set limit contact force for speeds under 1 m/s. Moreover, we evaluated integrated obstacle avoidance proving the ability to advance without incurring any other collision.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related concepts (29)
Robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of electronics and communication, computer science and engineering. Robotics involves the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrates fields of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, information engineering, mechatronics engineering, electronics, biomedical engineering, computer engineering, control systems engineering, software engineering, mathematics, etc.
Mobile robot
A mobile robot is an automatic machine that is capable of locomotion. Mobile robotics is usually considered to be a subfield of robotics and information engineering. Mobile robots have the capability to move around in their environment and are not fixed to one physical location. Mobile robots can be "autonomous" (AMR - autonomous mobile robot) which means they are capable of navigating an uncontrolled environment without the need for physical or electro-mechanical guidance devices.
Autonomous robot
An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control. The first autonomous robots environment were known as Elmer and Elsie, which were constructed in the late 1940s by W. Grey Walter. They were the first robots in history that were programmed to "think" the way biological brains do and meant to have free will. Elmer and Elsie were often labeled as tortoises because of how they were shaped and the manner in which they moved. They were capable of phototaxis which is the movement that occurs in response to light stimulus.
Show more
Related publications (39)

Exact Obstacle Avoidance for Robots in Complex and Dynamic Environments Using Local Modulation

Lukas Huber

Robots outside of the fenced factories have to deal with continuously changing environment, this requires fast and flexible modes of control. Planning methods or complex learning models can find optimal paths in complex surroundings, but they are computati ...
EPFL2024

Dual-Arm Control for Coordinated Fast Grabbing and Tossing of an Object

Aude Billard, Michael Bosongo Bombile

Picking up objects to toss them on a conveyor belt are activities generated on a daily basis in the industry. These tasks are still done largely by humans. This paper proposes a unified motion generator for a bimanual robotic systems that enables two 7 deg ...
2022

Unfreezing Social Navigation: Dynamical Systems based Compliance for Contact Control in Robot Navigation

Aude Billard, Diego Felipe Paez Granados

Soon human-robot interactions in pedestrian areas will be beyond the novelty effect with the deployment of delivery robots, autonomous personal mobility vehicles, and surveillance robots. Proxemics and other social rules guide these interactions, nonethele ...
2021
Show more
Related MOOCs (13)
Thymio: un robot pour se former à l'informatique
On propose dans ce MOOC de se former à et avec Thymio : apprendre à programmer le robot Thymio et ce faisant, s’initier à l'informatique et la robotique.
The Thymio robot as a tool for discovering digital science
This MOOC teaches basic understanding of robots’ mechanisms and Thymio’s programming languages, classroom use and pedagogical elements.
The Thymio robot as a tool for discovering digital science
This MOOC teaches basic understanding of robots’ mechanisms and Thymio’s programming languages, classroom use and pedagogical elements.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.