Pushing a robot along - A natural interface for human-robot interaction

Humans use direct physical interactions to move objects and guide people, and the same should be done with robots. However, most of today's mobile robots use non-backdrivable motors for locomotion, making them potentially dangerous in case of collision. This paper presents a robot, named AZIMUT-3, equipped with differential elastic actuators that are backdrivable and torque controlled, capable of being force-guided. Real world results demonstrate that AZIMUT-3 can move efficiently in response to physical commands given by a human pushing the robot in the intended direction.