Key Technologies in Robot Assistants: Motion Coordination Between a Human and a Mobile Robot

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper we describe an approach to coordinating the motion of a human with a mobile robot moving in a populated, continuously changing, natural environment. Our test application is a wheelchair accompanying a person through the concourse of a railway station moving side by side with the person. Our approach is based on a method for motion planning amongst moving obstacles known as Velocity Obstacle approach. We extend this method by a method for tracking a virtual target which allows us to vary the robot’s heading and velocity with the locomotion of the accompanied person and the state of the surrounding environment.