Object-impedance-based cooperative handling of object by mobile robot helper and human using visual and force information

In this paper, we propose a new control system for a mobile robot helper, referred to as M/sub R/ Helper, which could handle an object in cooperation with a human. The proposed system consists of cooperative manipulation with a human and autonomous transportation by itself using visual and force information. In this system, the object is controlled so that it has an apparent dynamics relative to the global coordinate system, and the system is controlled based on the object impedance. As a result, in the cooperative manipulation, a motion of the object is not influenced by a motion of the mobile base. In the autonomous transportation, the robot can follow the human's path without collision with obstacle which are around the mobile base. The proposed control system is experimentally implemented in M/sub R/ Helper and experimental results illustrate the validity of the system.