Task-model based human robot cooperation using vision

We are currently engaged in advancing research in human-robot cooperation with the goal of realizing service robots in homes and offices. In order to assist humans, robots must correctly identify the tasks that humans intend to perform, and then devise strategies to perform those tasks. To accomplish this, we first define the framework of a task model for assisting a human's work. The robot then automatically generates a task model from event analysis based on observation of a human performing the desired task. Based on that task model, the robot plans appropriate assistance, which it executes at the time of its cooperative work with the human. We have tested he effectiveness of this method by performing an experiment in which a human and a robot cooperated in assembling toy parts. Bibliography [1] H.Kimura and K.Ikeuchi: Vision Based Cooperation between Human and Robot, Robotics Symposia 97, pp.120-126, 1997. [2] H.Kimura, T.Horiuchi and K.Ikeuchi: Task-Model Based Human Robot Cooperation Using Vision, Proc. on Inter. Conf. on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp.701-706, 1999. [3] Y.Sato, H.Kimura and K.Ikeuchi: Extraction of functions of objects through observation of human demonstrations, Robotics and Mechatronics '01, 2A1-C12, pp.43, 2001. [4] Y.Sato, H.Kimura and K.Ikeuchi: Description and implementation of robot operation based on the object functions, Abs. of the 19th Annual Conf. of the Robotics Society of Japan, pp.108, 1K26, 2001. [5] Y.Sato, H.Kimura and K.Ikeuchi: Task analysis based on observing hands and objects by vision, 7th Robotics Symposia, pp.125-130, 2002. [6] Y.Sato, H.Kimura and K.Ikeuchi: 3-D Object Tracking Using Multi-baseline Stereo Vision, Meeting on Image Recognition and Understanding (MIRU2002), I-279 – I-284, 2002 [7] Y.Sato, K.Bernardin, H.Kimura, K.Ikeuchi, Task analysis based on observing hands and objects by vision, Proc. of 2002 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp.1208-1213, 2002.