Cooperative Navigation for Mixed Human-Robot Teams Using Haptic Feedback

In this paper, we present a novel cooperative navigation control for human-robot teams. Assuming that a human wants to reach a final location in a large environment with the help of a mobile robot, the robot must steer the human from the initial to the target position. The challenges posed by cooperative human-robot navigation are typically addressed by using haptic feedback via physical interaction. In contrast to that, in this paper we describe a different approach, in which the human-robot interaction is achieved via wearable vibrotactile armbands. In the proposed work the subject is free to decide her/his own pace. A warning vibrational signal is generated by the haptic armbands when a large deviation with respect to the desired pose is detected by the robot. The proposed method has been evaluated in a large indoor environment, where fifteen blindfolded human subjects were asked to follow the haptic cues provided by the robot. The participants had to reach a target area, while avoiding static and dynamic obstacles. Experimental results revealed that the blindfolded subjects were able to avoid the obstacles and safely reach the target in all of the performed trials. A comparison is provided between the results obtained with blindfolded users and experiments performed with sighted people.