Mixed Reality Platform Supporting Human-Robot Interaction

Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is an interdisciplinary research field aiming to study and develop platform in which robots (and in particular collaborative robots, also called cobots) can interact and collaborate with humans to execute dedicated tasks. Usually, cobots are intended as passive robotic devices for direct collaboration with a human operator within a shared workspace. They are designed to be used in open and uncontrolled environments; the robot shall be able to adapt its behaviors to the dynamic input of the surrounding environment. In this optic, Mixed Reality (MR) can play a crucial role supporting the flow of data between the actors (cobot and human) working in the shared environment, it can offer a simply, but remarkably advanced, communication interface between human and robot. Thanks to MR, tools to allow human operators, without particular experience or knowledge of robotics, to easily interact with the cobot can be developed. Our work is focused on development of a MR platform that integrates cutting-edge technologies, i.e. a Head Mounted Display (HMD), and a cobot in a shared environment. The experimental setup includes the Microsoft’s Mixed Reality HMD HoloLens 2 and the Franka Emika Robot System