Strategies for Safety in Human Robot Interaction

This paper presents a hierarchical path planning and control strategy for ensuring safety during a human-robot interaction. At the planning stage, a two-step process is used where first the danger of the interaction is minimized, followed by a goal seeking optimization. This approach reduces the likelihood of encountering local minima due to conflicts between reducing danger and a demanded interaction task. At the control stage, the human intent signal is evaluated at every step to ensure safe operation of the robot. In initial simulation work, the controller drives the robot away from the planned interaction if danger is identified, and then allows the planned interaction to resume once the danger has passed.