A wearable general-purpose solution for Human-Swarm Interaction
This addresses the challenge of controlling robot swarms for industrial applications like material delivery and precision farming, representing a novel approach rather than an incremental improvement.
The paper tackles the problem of human operators struggling to convey high-level intentions to robot swarms by proposing a novel wearable human-swarm interface combining gesture recognition and haptic feedback. It claims to be the first wearable HSI interface that separates input and feedback components and works in both indoor and outdoor environments.
Swarms of robots will revolutionize many industrial applications, from targeted material delivery to precision farming. Controlling the motion and behavior of these swarms presents unique challenges for human operators, who cannot yet effectively convey their high-level intentions to a group of robots in application. This work proposes a new human-swarm interface based on novel wearable gesture-control and haptic-feedback devices. This work seeks to combine a wearable gesture recognition device that can detect high-level intentions, a portable device that can detect Cartesian information and finger movements, and a wearable advanced haptic device that can provide real-time feedback. This project is the first to envisage a wearable Human-Swarm Interaction (HSI) interface that separates the input and feedback components of the classical control loop (input, output, feedback), as well as being the first of its kind suitable for both indoor and outdoor environments.