Dodging control - a model of efficient obstacle-avoidance behavior

In this paper, we introduce an efficient avoiding action - dodging control - for a mobile robot. We have been developing a robotic vehicle with an articulated arm. The robot is designed to move around a U-shaped cell in a factory and to work together with people. In physical contact with people, robots are expected to be controlled to reduce the contact force with people or other objects in order to ensure the safe and reliable operation. Unlike the conventional avoidance action such as force following control, the proposed control aims at dodging an applied force by turning it aside, and enables a rapid returning to the work operation. We introduce the formulation of dodging motion control with some experimental results.