Human-Robot Collaborative Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects based on the Catenary Model

Abstract

Developing a human-robot collaborative workplace is the solution to perform faster and more efficient tasks by merging human cognition, awareness, and consciousness with the robot’s power generation, capacity, and precision. In this paper, we address the problem of manipulating linear deformable objects such as cables, ropes, or textiles in a collaborative setup.The proposed method is based on a real-time model-based control algorithm used to position a given point belonging to the object, which is grasped by a human and a robot at its endpoints. The basis of this method lies in (i) the theory of catenaries for modeling the object’s deformation in real-time (ii) the formulation of an interaction matrix representing the robot controller gradient to reach the target position. The experimental results show that the proposed method is reactive to human motion during manipulation and able to reach the desired position accurately.