Hand It to Me Formally! Data-Driven Control for Human-Robot Handovers With Signal Temporal Logic

To facilitate human-robot interaction (HRI), we aim for robot behavior that is efficient, transparent, and closely resembles human actions. Signal Temporal Logic (STL) is a formal language that enables the specification and verification of complex temporal properties in robotic systems, helping to ensure their correctness. STL can be used to generate explainable robot behaviour, the degree of satisfaction of which can be quantified by checking its STL robustness. In this letter, we use
data-driven
STL inference techniques to model human behavior in human-human interactions, on a handover dataset. We then use the learned model to generate robot behavior in human-robot interactions. We present a handover planner based on inferred STL specifications to command robotic motion in human-robot handovers. We also validate our method in a human-to-robot handover experiment.