Robot arm surface covers for physical interference adapting motion

This paper proposes robot arm surface covers developed to detect various information of Physical interference (PIF) with human. First, PIF information for precisely recognizing PIF was specified. Next, humanoid arm surface covers for detecting the PIF information were designed and developed. Also, a method for not only behaving adaptively to human but also realizing task completeness is described. Finally, an evaluation experiment was carried out in a situation where a humanoid WENDY with the surface covers is holding a cup filled with contents. Various PIF forces are applied to the robot. The arm was controlled to absorb the PIF forces not to spill the contents. The result of the experiment shows that the task completeness is achieved as well as PIF adapting motions and the validity of the developed arm surface covers for PIF adaptation with human was confirmed.