NRI: FND: Rapid Operator Awareness via Mobile Robotics (ROAMR), Customizable Human Safety using Mobile and Wearable Co-Robots

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

Human operators in construction sites, disaster zones, and other rapidly changing environments risk injury from collisions with moving machinery and falling components. The risk of collisions can reduce human performance by forcing them to work very slowly and keep track of multiple situations simultaneously. This project aims to explore how teams of co-robots can improve human safety by detecting potential collisions that the humans may not be aware of, alerting them to the danger, and helping them move away from the danger. The project will develop methods for communicating potential threats to human operators via a human-worn exoskeleton, which can also assist the people in moving to safety as rapidly as possible. The approach will augment human awareness, performance, and safety in unstructured, outdoor, and varying environments, where dynamic objects pose threats of imminent, unnoticed collision. Specifically, the project will develop a new safety architecture where mobile systems rapidly detect collisions and plan a safe response, a wearable exoskeleton communicates the situation to the human, and the exoskeleton helps to achieve a safe response. The project will focus on 1) developing and characterizing a physical "language" for wearable co-robots to provide situational awareness based on visual displays, audio guidance, vibro-tactile sensations, and physical signals from the exoskeleton actuators; 2) investigating how wearable sensing can infer human motions using machine learning to predict human behavior by accounting for automated obstacle avoidance plans, human motion strategies, and measurements of joint kinematics, ground contact forces, and muscle activation; and 3) researching how a wearable exoskeleton can accelerate safe responses in real-time by using targeted exoskeleton torques to enhance propulsive forces and increase speed of response by reducing the apparent inertia of the limbs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.