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Safe physical human–robot interaction of mobility assistance robots: evaluation index and control

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2010

Aslam Pervez  and
Jeha Ryu
Aslam Pervez*
Affiliation:
Informatics Complex, P.O. Box 2191, H-8, Islamabad, Pakistan
Jeha Ryu
Affiliation:
Human-Machine-Computer Interface Lab, Department of Mechatronics, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), Gwangju, Republic Of Korea. E-mail: ryu@gist.ac.kr
*
*Corresponding author. E-mails: aslam@iccc.org.pk, aslam_pervez@hotmail.com
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Summary

Independent mobility is one of the major challenges for elderly. Assistive robots must guarantee user's safety. Existing methods to quantitatively express user's safety are not applicable to mobility assistance robots due to physical attachment. This paper proposes a danger index to estimate user's safety during mobility assistance. The formulation and validation of the index is achieved through extensive subjective and objective experimentation. A motion control method is also introduced that uses the proposed danger index for monitoring user's safety and initiating proper safety actions in case of danger. As an example, experimental results with SpiderBot-II are reported in this paper.

Keywords

Danger indexPhysical human–robot interactionMobility assistanceElderly
Type
Articles
Information
Robotica , Volume 29 , Issue 5 , September 2011 , pp. 767 - 785
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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