Human-like Manipulation Planning for Articulated Manipulator

A new method based on human-likeness assessment and optimization concept to solve the problem of human-like manipulation planning for articulated robot is proposed in this paper. This method intrinsically formulates the problem as a constrained optimization problem in robot configuration space. The robot configuration space is divided into different subregions by human likeness assessment. A widely used strategy, Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) in applied ergonomics, is adopted here to evaluate the human likeness of robot configuration. A task compatibility measurement of the robot velocity transmission ratio along a specified direction is used as the target function for the optimization problem. Simple illustrative examples of this method applied to a two Degree of Freedom (DOF) planar robot that resembles the upper limb of a human are presented. Further applications to a humanoid industrial robot SDA10D are also presented. The reasonable planning results for these applications assert the effectiveness of our method.