Risk-Aware Motion Control for Care Robots

A risk-aware motion control system is presented so that care robots can conduct human-like behaviors by changing the behavior patterns concerning environmental risk. First, a method of evaluating the environmental risk of possible collision is introduced, by measuring the narrowness of the robot-centered space. Then a way of defining and achieving robot behavior patterns through the limitation of velocity and acceleration in the motion controller is presented. Finally, a system integrating the risk evaluation module and behavior adjust module is introduced which allows human-like behaviors upon traditional indoor navigation. Experiments were conducted in a real household environment with our care robot, KUT-PCR, in which the effectiveness of the proposed approach was verified.