Our research in Human Interactive Robotics focuses on allowing robots to perform human tasks in the real world and allowing humans to perform tasks in a virtual world.<\/p>\n
A large area of research is how to build hardware that allows robots to move and manipulate tools and objects in a human environment to perform challenging human tasks. For example, perhaps we want a robot to tighten a few loose screws and bolts around the house. Rather than designing a glorified power screw-driver that does only that task, we want to design a robot that can drive into the garage, open the tool chest, select and pick-up an appropriate screw-driver, drive up the stairs, and tighten the sink faucet. Towards this end, we designed mobile robots, like PR1<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0PR2<\/a> as well as better arms and hands for manipulating common objects and tools that humans use with ease.<\/p>\n The required intelligence for a robot to perform complex human tasks autonomously is another research interest. Along these lines, we developed an integrated system for the PR2 robot to autonomously purchase coffee from a coffee shop near our lab and return with it. This required successful navigation of the doors and the elevators in our building as well as the development of a process for passing objects to and from untrained humans.<\/p>\n Our research in Human Interactive Robotics focuses on allowing robots to perform human tasks in the real world and allowing humans to perform tasks in a virtual world. A large area of research is how to build hardware that allows robots to move and manipulate tools and objects in a human environment to perform challenging …<\/p>\n\n