Wearable sensing for bio-feedback in human robot interaction

Abstract

Human robot interaction is occurring more often in today’s society. Robots are being developed to perform a wide variety of tasks, many of which include or even depend on HRI. The three main categories of human robot interaction are human assistance and replacement, human cooperation, and social interaction. The purpose, actions, and overall structure and dynamics of these robots will vary greatly, even within their respective categories. While the many robot designs may vary greatly, feedback is one fundamental that will always improve performance. Many designs include built-in sensors that provide feedback regarding the state of the robot and its environment, but interacting with humans presents a new challenge. Biological feedback from an interacting human can be useful for robots during human interaction. The feedback can be used to increase the effectiveness and safety of a robot’s actions during interaction, which in turn will make humans more comfortable with the interaction. To achieve this, wearable sensors can be used to collect feedback. This chapter will discuss the varying types of interaction under development, and show how feedback from wearable sensors could greatly increase robot performance.