Howell, Ashley (Brigham Young University)
Faculty Advisor: Killpack, Marc (Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering); Salmon, John (Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering)
Human-robot co-manipulation of objects to complete specific tasks, such as carrying a stretcher in a search and rescue operation, is an open ended problem in the foreseeable future. Since many motions of the shared object, like rotation and translation, initially feel identical, it can create disagreement between the human and the robot on where to move the object. Programming a robot to determine what kind of movement a human is suggesting and acting accordingly requires extensive data on how humans interpret such communications. This project focuses on designing and constructing a stretcher like object that will be used in a series of experiments in which two humans will carry it through a random arrangement of obstacles. Sensors on the object will gather data on the different ways humans move and interact with it through forces and torques. Indications of these movements will be used to instruct a robot on how to "follow" with the goal of adding no additional cognitive load to the human leader.