Related papers: Optometrist's Algorithm for Personalizing Robot-Hu…

Transferring human motion to a mobile robotic manipulator and ensuring safe physical human-robot interaction are crucial steps towards automating complex manipulation tasks in human-shared environments. In this work, we present a novel…

Predictive human models often need to adapt their parameters online from human data. This raises previously ignored safety-related questions for robots relying on these models such as what the model could learn online and how quickly could…

In many real-life settings, algorithms play the role of assistants, while humans ultimately make the final decision. Often, algorithms specifically act as curators, narrowing down a wide range of options into a smaller subset that the human…

Effective human-robot collaboration depends on task-oriented handovers, where robots present objects in ways that support the partners intended use. However, many existing approaches neglect the humans post-handover action, relying on…

We study human-robot handovers in a naturalistic collaboration scenario, where a mobile manipulator robot assists a person during a crafting session by providing and retrieving objects used for wooden piece assembly (functional activities)…

Many industrial tasks-such as sanding, installing fasteners, and wire harnessing-are difficult to automate due to task complexity and variability. We instead investigate deploying robots in an assistive role for these tasks, where the robot…

In shared autonomy, user input and robot autonomy are combined to control a robot to achieve a goal. Often, the robot does not know a priori which goal the user wants to achieve, and must both predict the user's intended goal, and assist in…

Robotic algorithms typically depend on various parameters, the choice of which significantly affects the robot's performance. While an initial guess for the parameters may be obtained from dynamic models of the robot, parameters are usually…

Hugs are complex affective interactions that often include gestures like squeezes. We present six new guidelines for designing interactive hugging robots, which we validate through two studies with our custom robot. To achieve autonomy, we…

In this preliminary study, we investigate changes in handover behaviour when transferring hazardous objects with the help of a high-resolution touch sensor. Participants were asked to hand over a safe and hazardous object (a full cup and an…

Human-robot interaction exerts influence towards the human, which often changes behavior. This article explores an externality of this changed behavior - preference change. It expands on previous work on preference change in AI systems.…

Human-Robot-Interaction (HRI) research is typically built around the premise that the robot serves to assist a human in achieving a human-led goal or shared task. However, there are many circumstances during HRI in which a robot may need…

Assistive robotic arms enable users with physical disabilities to perform everyday tasks without relying on a caregiver. Unfortunately, the very dexterity that makes these arms useful also makes them challenging to teleoperate: the robot…

Existing approaches to direct robot-to-human handovers are typically implemented on fixed-base robot arms, or on mobile manipulators that come to a full stop before performing the handover. We propose "on-the-go" handovers which permit a…

A wide range of human-robot collaborative applications in diverse domains such as manufacturing, health care, the entertainment industry, and social interactions, require an autonomous robot to follow its human companion. Different working…

Machine learning assumes a pivotal role in our data-driven world. The increasing scale of models and datasets necessitates quick and reliable algorithms for model training. This dissertation investigates adaptivity in machine learning…

Robotic minimally invasive interventions typically require using more than two instruments. We thus developed a foot pedal interface which allows the user to control a robotic arm (simultaneously to working with the hands) with four degrees…

This paper describes a novel approach in human robot interaction driven by ergonomics. With a clear focus on optimising ergonomics, the approach proposed here continuously observes a human user's posture and by invoking appropriate…

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder find robots easier to communicate with than humans. Thus, robots have been introduced in autism therapies. However, due to the environmental complexity, the used robots often have to be controlled…

In previous work, the authors proposed a data-driven optimisation algorithm for the personalisation of human-prosthetic interfaces, demonstrating the possibility of adapting prosthesis behaviour to its user while the user performs tasks…