Independent Component Analysis.

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has recently received considerable attention in the academic community, in labs, in technology companies, and through the media. Because of this attention, it is desirable to present a survey of HRI to serve as a tutorial to people outside the field and to promote discussion of a unified vision of HRI within the field. The goal of this review is to present a unified treatment of HRI-related problems, to identify key themes, and discuss challenge problems that are likely to shape the field in the near future. Although the review follows a survey structure, the goal of presenting a coherent "story" of HRI means that there are necessarily some well-written, intriguing, and influential papers that are not referenced. Instead of trying to survey every paper, we describe the HRI story from multiple perspectives with an eye toward identifying themes that cross applications. The survey attempts to include papers that represent a fair cross section of the universities, government efforts, industry labs, and countries that contribute to HRI, and a cross section of the disciplines that contribute to the field, such as human, factors, robotics, cognitive psychology, and design.

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Human-Robot Interaction: A Survey

Starting from human ?sense of touch,? this paper reviews the state of tactile sensing in robotics. The physiology, coding, and transferring tactile data and perceptual importance of the ?sense of touch? in humans are discussed. Following this, a number of design hints derived for robotic tactile sensing are presented. Various technologies and transduction methods used to improve the touch sense capability of robots are presented. Tactile sensing, focused to fingertips and hands until past decade or so, has now been extended to whole body, even though many issues remain open. Trend and methods to develop tactile sensing arrays for various body sites are presented. Finally, various system issues that keep tactile sensing away from widespread utility are discussed.

Tactile Sensing—From Humans to Humanoids

A stable tracking control rule is proposed for nonholonomic vehicles. The stability of the rule is proved through the use of a Liapunov function. Inputs to the vehicle are a reference posture (x/sub r/, y/sub r/, theta /sub r/)/sup t/ and reference velocities ( nu /sub r/, omega /sub r/)/sup t/. The major objective of this study is to propose a control rule to find reasonable target linear and rotational velocities ( nu , omega )/sup t/. Linearizing the system's differential equation is useful for deciding parameters for critical dumping for a small disturbance. In order to avoid slippage, a velocity/acceleration limitation scheme is introduced. Several simulation results are presented with or without the velocity/acceleration limiter. The control rule and limiting method proposed are robot independent and hence can be applied to various kinds of mobile robots with a dead reckoning ability. This method was implemented on the autonomous mobile robot Yamabico-11. Experimental results obtained are close to the results with the velocity/acceleration limiter. >

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A stable tracking control method for an autonomous mobile robot

An adaptive interface for a programmable system, for predicting a desired user function, based on user history, as well as machine internal status and context. The apparatus receives an input from the user and other data. A predicted input is presented for confirmation by the user, and the predictive mechanism is updated based on this feedback. Also provided is a pattern recognition system for a multimedia device, wherein a user input is matched to a video stream on a conceptual basis, allowing inexact programming of a multimedia device. The system analyzes a data stream for correspondence with a data pattern for processing and storage. The data stream is subjected to adaptive pattern recognition to extract features of interest to provide a highly compressed representation that may be efficiently processed to determine correspondence. Applications of the interface and system include a video cassette recorder (VCR), medical device, vehicle control system, audio device, environmental control system, securities trading terminal, and smart house. The system optionally includes an actuator for effecting the environment of operation, allowing closed-loop feedback operation and automated learning.

Adaptive pattern recognition based control system and method

Biped robots have better mobility than conventional wheeled robots, but they tip over easily. In order to walk stably in various environments such as rough terrain, up and down slopes, or regions containing obstacles, it is desirable to adapt to such ground conditions with a suitable foot motion, and maintain the stability of the robot by a smooth hip motion. We propose a method to plan a walking pattern consisting of a foot trajectory and a hip trajectory. First, we formulate the constraints of a foot trajectory, and generate the foot trajectory by 3rd order spline interpolation. By setting the values of constraint parameters, it is easy to produce different types of foot motion. Then, we formulate a hip trajectory using a 3rd order periodic spline function, and derive the hip trajectory with high stability. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by simulation examples.

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A high stability, smooth walking pattern for a biped robot

A finger-shaped tactile sensor previously reported in a scaled-up version was miniaturized and its signal processing speed improved. The miniaturized tactile sensor consists of a hemispherical optical waveguide with an elastic cover, a fiber-optics plate (FOP), a position-sensitive detector (PSD), and infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) for the light source. When an object comes in contact with the sensor, the elastic cover is depressed and light from the LEDs, which normally maintains total internal reflection within the waveguide, is scattered at the contact location of the waveguide and the cover. The scattered light is transmitted to the PSD through the FOP. The contact location and the normal to the surface of the object are determined from the output of the PSD. The sensor's fundamental characteristics were evaluated through experiments using the miniaturized version. The sensor was installed at the tip of a robotic finger to create an active touch system. By combining tactile sensing and motion control of the finger, the profile of an unseen object was successfully delineated. >

Development of a finger-shaped tactile sensor and its evaluation by active touch

A portable map display apparatus stores, in a memory, features of a plurality of points on a given map and features of routes connecting such points and, on receiving input signals concerning a given point of start and a given destination, sequentially displays, on an output device, the information on the optimum route to be followed in reaching the destination from the point of start.

Portable map display apparatus

Recognition of the actual position is very important for a mobile robot to move around in its environment. The most common method of position estimation is dead reckoning usually achieved by integrating wheel rotation along the path. This method, however, has a serious problem that the estimation errors are accumulated. In this paper we propose using an optical fiber gyroscope (OFG) combined with the information provided by the wheel encoders to improve the accuracy of position estimation. The formulation using a Kalman filter to combine the information of the encoders with that of the OFG is described. The simulation results and the experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed method. >

Position estimation of a mobile robot using optical fiber gyroscope (OFG)

Two main problems to be solved in designing truly effective mobility aids for the blind are: 1) to determine what kinds and how many pieces of information are necessary and/or sufficient to mobilize humans, and 2) to establish the optimal coding and display method of the acquired information.

Kiyoshi Komoriya

Papers

A high stability, smooth walking pattern for a biped robot

Development of a finger-shaped tactile sensor and its evaluation by active touch

Portable map display apparatus

Position estimation of a mobile robot using optical fiber gyroscope (OFG)

Electrocutaneous Communication in a Guide Dog Robot (MELDOG)