Collaborative Human-Robot Exploration via Implicit Coordination

November 2022

Collaborative Human-Robot Exploration via Implicit Coordination

Authors:

Yves Georgy Daoud, Kshitij Goel, Nathan Michael, and Wennie Tabib

Abstract:

This paper develops a methodology for collaborative human-robot exploration that leverages implicit coordination. Most autonomous single- and multi-robot exploration systems require a remote operator to provide explicit guidance to the robotic team. Few works consider how to embed the human partner alongside robots to provide guidance in the field. A remaining challenge for collaborative human-robot exploration is efficient communication of goals from the human to the robot. In this paper we develop a methodology that implicitly communicates a region of interest from a helmet-mounted depth camera on the human's head to the robot and an information gain-based exploration objective that biases motion planning within the viewpoint provided by the human. The result is an aerial system that safely accesses regions of interest that may not be immediately viewable or reachable by the human. The approach is evaluated in simulation and with hardware experiments in a motion capture arena. Videos of the simulation and hardware experiments are available at: https://youtu.be/7jgkBpVFIoE.
@conference{Daoud-2022-135327,
author = {Yves Georgy Daoud And Kshitij Goel And Nathan Michael And Wennie Tabib},
title = {Collaborative Human-Robot Exploration via Implicit Coordination},
booktitle = {Proceedings of 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Safety, Security, and Rescue Robotics (SSRR)},
year = {2022},
month = {November},
pages = {80-86},
publisher = {IEEE},
}
Copyright notice: This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.