Real-Time Self-Collision Avoidance Using RoBE for Human-Friendly Robot

Abstract

We have proposed a real-time self-collision avoidance control method for the robot which is used for human-robot cooperation. In this method, we represent the body of the robot by using elastic elements referred to as “RoBE (Representation of Body by Elastic elements)”. In this paper, especially, we consider task constraints and environmental constraints during the self-collision avoidance motion, and propose two priority functions for robots to realize the several kinds of tasks in an environment based on the force/moment applied by a human. By using this control algorithm, we could apply the proposed control algorithm to any robot systems used for human-robot cooperation. The proposed motion control algorithm is implemented in a human-friendly robot, referred to as “MR Helper”, and experiments are done for illustrating the validity of the proposed self-collision avoidance motion.