A neural-network based approach for recognition of pose and motion gestures on a mobile robot

Since a variety of changes in both robotic hardware and software suggests that service robots will soon become possible, to find "natural" ways of communication between human and robots is of fundamental importance for the robotic field. The paper describes a gesture-based interface for human-robot interaction, which enables people to instruct robots through easy-to-perform arm gestures. Such gestures might be static pose gestures, which involve only a specific configuration of the person's arm, or they might be dynamic motion gestures, that is, they involve motion (such as waving). Gestures are recognized in real-time at approximate frame rate, using neural networks. A fast, color-based tracking algorithm enables the robot to track and follow a person reliably through office environments with drastically changing lighting conditions. Results are reported in the context of an interactive clean-up task, where a person guides the robot to specific locations that need to be cleaned, and the robot picks up trash which it then delivers to the nearest trash-bin.