Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Elective in Robotics/Control Problems in Robotics

(coordinator Prof. Marilena Vendittelli)

Module of

Physical Human-Robot Interaction

Prof. Alessandro De Luca
Dipartimento di Ingegneria informatica, automatica e gestionale Antonio Ruberti (DIAG)
Sapienza Università di Roma
Via Ariosto 25, 00185 Roma, Italy
office: A-210
tel: +39 06 77274 052
email: deluca [at] diag [dot] uniroma1 [dot] it

Academic year 2022-23 (second semester)

NOTICE: This 3-credit module wll be taught in the academic year 2023-24 by Prof. Antonio Franchi. Please check the new webpage and/or with him for the new specific contents.
This topic has replaced since the academic year 2021-22 the module on Locomotion and Haptic Interfaces.

Material for this module
Google group
How to complete the credits for this module
Booking of exams

Aims: This module treats the physical aspects of Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI), ranging from close coexistence in the same workspace to active collaboration with exchange of forces on shared tasks, with special emphasis on safety and control issues. It summarizes also the research results obtained over the years by our Robotics group within three European projects: FP6 PHRIENDS (2006-09), FP7 SAPHARI (2011-2015), and H2020 SYMPLEXITY (2015-18). See also the YouTube channel Physical human-robot interaction.

Detailed contents: Physical and cognitive Human-Robot Interaction (pHRI and cHRI). Robot safety and dependability (mechanics, sensing, planning, and control). Lightweight and compliant robotic manipulators. Robots with Variable Stiffness Actuation (VSA). Soft robotics. An architecture for pHRI: safety, coexistence, and collaborative layers. Safety standards in robotics. The collision event pipeline. Sensorless detection and isolation of collisions and contacts. Collision detection in industrial robots with a closed control architeture. Safe reaction strategies to collisions. Use of redundancy. Human-robot coexistence. Monitoring distances in the workspace. Collision avoidance in dynamic/anthropic domains. Industrial case study. Human-robot collaboration: contactless/visual coordination or with physical interaction. Contact localization and contact force estimation. Control schemes for collaborative human-robot tasks: admittance control, force regulation, impedance control, hybrid force/motion control. Case studies in two industrial prototype cells.

Prerequisites: This module has no strict prerequisites. However, it is strongly recommended to have acquaintance with the basic topics of Robotics 1 and Robotics 2.

ECTS credits for this module: 3 credits (out of 12 or 6 credits, respectively for Elective in Robotics or Control Problems in Robotics)

Lectures for this module

Period: first part of second semester (February - March 2023; 4 to 6 weeks)
Begin: Tuesday, February 21, 2023
End: Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Schedule:

Tuesday	14:00-16:00 (room A7; DIAG, Via Ariosto 25)
Thursday	08:00-11:00 (room A4; DIAG, Via Ariosto 25), plus a reserved extra hour (11:00-12:00) if needed

Distribution of students according to the course of study:

2022-23: 35 students as Sapienza members of the Google group: 26 MARR (2 international), 5 MCER (1 international), 4 MMER.
2021-22: 18 students as Sapienza members of the Google group: 7 MCER (3 international), 5 MARR, 3 MMER (1 international), 2 Erasmus, 1 PhD.

Material for this module

Teaching material (PDF of the slides, video clips, technical papers, etc.) is available here. Videorecordings of lectures will not be available.

#1 pHRI_Introduction.pdf (70 slides, with links to videos; February 21, 2023)

Reference material to slides #1

#2 pHRI_SafetyDependability.pdf (61 slides; March 7, 2023)

Reference material to slides #2

#3 pHRI_CollisionDetectionReaction.pdf (64 slides; March 14, 2023)

Reference material to slides #3

#4 pHRI_CoexistenceCollaboration.pdf (84 slides; March 30, 2023)

Reference material to slides #4

Zipped folder with extra videos for slide block #4 (19 extra videos without a link in the slides)
De Santis et al. Atlas for pHRI, Mechanism Machine Theory 2008
Flacco, De Luca. Optimal Placement of Depth/Presence Sensors, ICRA 2010
De Luca, Flacco. Integrated Architecture for pHRI, IEEE BioRob 2012
Flacco et al. Depth Space for Collision Avoidance, ICRA 2012
Magrini, Flacco, De Luca. Estimation of Contact Forces, IROS 2014
Magrini, Flacco, De Luca. Contact Motion and Force Control in pHRI, ICRA 2015
Flacco et al. Depth Space Distance and Collision Avoidance, J Intell Robot Syst 2015
Magrini, De Luca. Hybrid Force-Velocity Control for pHRI, IROS 2016
Buondonno, De Luca. Force Estimation with Real and Virtual Sensors, IROS 2016
Cirillo et al. Tactile Skin for pHRI, IEEE RAL 2016
Khatib, AlKhudir, De Luca. Visual Coordination for HRC, IROS 2017
Flacco, De Luca. Distance with Multiple Depth Sensors, IEEE RAL 2017
Gaz, Magrini, De Luca. HR Collaboration for Polishing Operations, Mechatronics 2018
Mariotti, Magrini, De Luca. Admittance Control for HRC with F/T Sensor, ICRA 2019
Magrini et al. HR Coexistance and Interaction in Open Cell, Robotics and CIM 2020
Khatib, AlKhudir, De Luca. HR Contactless Collaboration with Mixed Reality, Robotics and CIM 2021
Iskandar et al. Collision Isolation and Contact Force Estimation in DLR SARA robot, ICRA 2021
Note 1 - Estimation of contact forces in 3R planar arm [Ex_Rob2_15Jul2013]
Note 2 - Estimation of contact force & location from link frame info [Zurlo_etal_ICRA23]

Google group

A Google group has been created to post questions about the content of the lectures, exchange information and discuss the topics of the module in general. New registrations are not accepted after the end of the lectures. Groups of past years are still active (but no new registrations are considered as well).

URL: https://groups.google.com/a/diag.uniroma1.it/d/forum/pHRI_module_2022-23
Email: phri_module_2022-23@diag.uniroma1.it
Access: Restricted to Sapienza students only. Please request admission at the URL using ONLY your institutional email address @studenti.uniroma1.it. When applying be sure to enter i) your first and last name as "Display Name", as well as ii) your Master program [Control Engineering (MCER) or AI & Robotics (MARR)], iii) your current year of enrollment in the course of study, and which course you have in your study plan [ Control Problems in Robotics (CPR, 6 credits) or Elective in Robotics (EiR), 12 credits], together with any other useful information, as "Reason for joining". Incomplete requests will be discarded without further notice.

How to complete the credits for this module

Students who have attended (in the classroom and/or remotely) at least 2/3 of the lectures can pass this module by either giving a presentation with slides on a certain topic (based on technical papers) or developing a short project (in general, involving simulations or experiments). Work can be done alone or in groups, typically by two students for presentations and three students for short projects. Presentations and projects should be completed as early as possible, but no later than by the end of December (of the solar year of attendance).

Note that in order to obtain the 12 credits of Elective in Robotics, it is necessary to complete all four modules (each of 3 credits). Altogether, each student should give two (2) presentations and complete two (2) short projects. For more details, see the main page of Elective in Robotics.

Similarly, in order to obtain the 6 credits of Control Problems in Robotics, each student has to complete two modules (each of 3 credits), giving one presentation and one short project. For more details, see the main page of Control Problems in Robotics.

Booking of exams

Please check the information in the main page of the Elective in Robotics or Control Problems in Robotics courses. In order to get the final grade you only need one registration. Book the exam when you have acquired the credits of all modules.

Last update: January 15, 2024