The Human Frontier: Robotics New Quest and Challenge

Abstract
Robotics is rapidly expanding into human environments and vigorously engaged in its new emerging challenges. Interacting, exploring, and working with humans, the new generation of robots will increasingly touch people and their lives. The successful introduction of robots in human environments will rely on the development of competent and practical systems that are dependable, safe, and easy to use. To effectively work, interact, and cooperate with humans, these robots must display abilities and skills that are compatible with those of humans. This discussion focuses on our ongoing effort to synthesize natural human movements to produce human-like robot behaviors. The objective is to unveil the underlying characteristics of human motion through an elaboration of its physiological basis, and to formulate general strategies for whole-body robot control. This exploration employs models of human musculoskeletal dynamics and makes use of extensive experimental studies of human subjects with motion capture techniques. Our investigation has revealed the dominant role physiological characteristics play in shaping human motion. This knowledge has allowed the development of generic motion behaviors that efficiently and effectively encode human motion behaviors. The implementation of these behaviors on robots with complex human-like structures relies on a novel whole-body task-oriented control structure that addresses dynamics in the context of multiple tasks, multi-point contacts, and multiple constraints. In this presentation, we will also examine other fundamental issues in human-centered robotics. These include new design concepts for the development of safe and human-friendly robotic systems, and efficient algorithms that address the computational challenges associated with human-like structures in environments with multiple contacts.