Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Motion synchronization for semi-autonomous robotic swarm with a passivity-short human operator

  • Regular Paper
  • Published:
International Journal of Intelligent Robotics and Applications Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates coordination between a human operator and robotic swarm. The objective is to guarantee human-enabled motion synchronization to desired position/velocity references. The presence of a human in the system could improve performance in completing complex missions and adaptation to changes in environment or mission goal. Although in some works the human is modeled or assumed as a passive system, this does not always hold and a systematic solution to deal with non-passive humans is still needed. To this end, this paper assumes the human operator’s process as a passivity-short system. Based on the positive feedback interconnection of passivity-short systems, we present a novel distributed control architecture interconnecting the human operator and the robotic swarm. The control goals are then proved to be achieved even in the presence of passivity shortage in the human operator. We finally demonstrate the proposed architecture through simulation studies and also implementation on an experimental testbed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles, news and stories from top researchers in related subjects.

Notes

  1. Differentiability of \(u_h\) is guaranteed by inserting a filter just after the human operator block. See Hatanaka et al. (2015a, 2017b) for more details on this issue.

References

  • Atashzar, S.F., Shahbazi, M., Tavakoli, M., Patel, R.V.: A passivity-based approach for stable patient–robot interaction in haptics-enabled rehabilitation systems: modulated time-domain passivity control. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol. 25–3, 991–1006 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bai, H., Freeman, R.A., Lynch, K.M.: Robust dynamic average consensus of time-varying inputs. In: 49th IEEE Conf. decision and control, pp. 3104–3109 (2010)

  • Colgate, J.E.: Coordinate transformations and logical operations for minimizing conservativeness in coupled stability criteria. Trans. ASME J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. Control 116–4, 643–649 (1994)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Cummings, M.L.: Human supervisory control of swarming networks. In: 2nd annual swarming: autonomous intelligent networked system conference, pp. 1–9 (2004)

  • Dyck, M., Jazayeri, A., Tavakoli, M.: Is the human operator in a teleoperation system passive? In: 2013 world haptics conf., pp. 683–688 (2013)

  • Egerstedt, M.: Human interactions with complex networks. In: Samad T, Annaswamy AM (eds.) The impact of control technology, 2nd edition, IEEE Control Systems Society. http://www.ieeecss.org (2014). Accessed 10 Oct 2017

  • Franchi, A., Secchi, C., Son, H.I., Bulthoff, H.H., Giordano, P.R.: Bilateral teleoperation of groups of mobile robots with time-varying topology. IEEE Trans. Robot. 28–5, 1019–1033 (2012a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Franchi, A., Secchi, C., Ryll, M., Bulthoff, H.H., Giordano, P.R.: Shared control: balancing autonomy and human assistance with a group of quadrotor UAVs. IEEE Robot. Autom. Mag. 19–3, 57–68 (2012b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, R.A., Yang, P., Lynch, K.M.: Stability and convergence properties of dynamic average consensus estimators. In: 45th IEEE conf. decision and control, pp. 338–343 (2006)

  • Giordano, P.R., Franchi, A., Secchi, C., Bulthoff, H.H.: A passivity-based decentralized strategy for generalized connectivity maintenance. Int. J. Robot. Res. 32–3, 299–323 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hatanaka, T., Chopra, N., Fujita, M.: Passivity-based bilateral human-swarm-interactions for cooperative robotic networks and human passivity analysis. In: 54th IEEE Conf. decision and control, pp. 1033–1039 (2015a)

  • Hatanaka, T., Chopra, N., Fujita, M., Spong, M.W.: Passivity-based Control and Estimation in Networked Robotics. Springer, Switzerland (2015b)

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Hatanaka, T., Chopra, N., Yamauchi, J., Doi, M., Kawai, Y., Fujita, M.: A passivity-based system design of semi-autonomous cooperative robotic swarm. ASME DSC Mag. 139–6, 14–18 (2017a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hatanaka, T., Chopra, N., Yamauchi, J., Fujita, M.: A passivity-based approach to human-swarm collaborations and passivity analysis of human operators. In: Wang, Y., Zhang, F. (eds.) Trends in Control and Decision-Making for Human–Robot Collaboration Systems, pp. 325–355. Springer, Switzerland (2017b)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hirche, S., Buss, M.: Human-oriented control for haptic teleoperation. Proc. IEEE 100–3, 623–647 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hokayem, P.F., Spong, M.W.: Bilateral teleoperation: an historical survey. Automatica 42–12, 2035–2057 (2006)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kolling, A., Walker, P., Chakraborty, N., Sycara, K., Lewis, M.: Human interaction with robot swarms: a survey. IEEE Trans. Hum. Mach. Syst. 46–1, 9–26 (2016)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, D., Spong, M.W.: Bilateral teleoperation of multiple cooperative robots over delayed communication networks: theory. In: Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Robotics and Automation, pp. 360–365 (2005)

  • Lee, D., Franchi, A., Son, H.I., Ha, C., Bulthoff, H.H., Giordano, P.R.: Semiautonomous haptic teleoperation control architecture of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles. IEEE/ASME Trans. Mechatron. 18–4, 1334–1345 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y.C., Chopra, N.: Controlled synchronization of heterogeneous robotic manipulators in the task space. IEEE Trans. Robot. 28–1, 268–275 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLurkin, J., Smith, J., Frankel, J., Sotkowitz, D., Blau, D., Schmidt, B.: Speaking swarmish: Human-robot interface design for large swarms of autonomous mobile robots. In: AAAI spring symposium, pp. 72–76 (2006)

  • McRuer, D.: Human dynamics in man-machine systems. Automatica 16–3, 237–253 (1980)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Mekdeci, B., Cummings, M.L.: Modeling multiple human operators in the supervisory control of heterogeneous unmanned vehicles. In: Proc. 9th workshop on performance metrics for intelligent systems, pp. 1–8 (2009)

  • Music, S., Hirche, S.: Control sharing in human–robot team interaction. Annu. Rev. Control 44, 342–354 (2017)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nuno, E., Basanez, L., Ortega, R.: Passivity-based control for bilateral teleoperation: a tutorial. Automatica 47, 485–495 (2011)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Olsen, D.R., Wood, B.: Fan-out: Measuring human control of multiple robots. In: Proc. SIGHCI Conf. human factors in computing systems, pp. 231–238 (2004)

  • Qu, Z.: An impact equivalence principle of separating control designs for networked heterogeneous affine systems. IFAC Proc. Vol. 45–26, 210–215 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Qu, Z., Simaan, M.A.: Modularized design for cooperative control and plug-and-play operation of networked heterogeneous systems. Automatica 50–9, 2405–2414 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez-Seda, E.J., Troy, J.J., Erignac, C.A., Murray, P., Stipanovic, D.M., Spong, M.W.: Bilateral teleoperation of multiple mobile agents: coordinated motion and collision avoidance. IEEE Trans. Control Syst. Technol. 18–4, 984–992 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Secchi, C., Franchi, A., Bulthoff, H.H., Giordano, P.R.: Bilateral teleoperation of a group of UAVs with communication delays and switching topology. In: Proc. IEEE Int. conf. robotics and automation, pp. 4307–4314 (2012)

  • Stipanovic, D.M., Hokayem, P.F., Spong, M.W., Siljak, D.D.: Cooperative avoidance control for multiagent systems. Trans. ASME J. Dyn. Syst. Meas. Control 129–5, 699–707 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, X., Wang, Y.: Co-design of control and scheduling for human-swarm collaboration systems based on mutual trust. In: Wang, Y., Zhang, F. (eds.) Trends in Control and Decision-Making for Human-Robot Collaboration Systems, pp. 387–413. Springer, Switzerland (2017)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Xia, M., Rahnama, A., Wang, S., Antsaklis, P.J.: On guaranteeing passivity and performance with a human controller. In: 2015 23th Mediterranean conf. control and automation, pp. 722–727 (2015)

  • Yun X., Yamamoto, Y.: Internal dynamics of a wheeled mobile robot. In: Proc. 1993 IEEE/RSJ Int. conf. intelligent robots and systems, pp. 1288–1294 (1993)

  • Wang, Y., Zhang, F. (eds.): Trends in Control and Decision-Making for Human–Robot Collaboration Systems. Springer, Switzerland (2017)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the financial support from JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 15H04019 and 18H01459.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems and Control Engineering, School of Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

    Made Widhi Surya Atman, Junya Yamauchi & Masayuki Fujita

  2. Division of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Osaka, Japan

    Takeshi Hatanaka

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA

    Zhihua Qu

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Nikhil Chopra

Authors
  1. Made Widhi Surya Atman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Takeshi Hatanaka
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  3. Zhihua Qu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  4. Nikhil Chopra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  5. Junya Yamauchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  6. Masayuki Fujita
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Made Widhi Surya Atman.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (wmv 4,067 KB)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Atman, M.W.S., Hatanaka, T., Qu, Z. et al. Motion synchronization for semi-autonomous robotic swarm with a passivity-short human operator. Int J Intell Robot Appl 2, 235–251 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-018-0056-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-018-0056-8

Keywords