Synchronization based control using online design of dynamics and its application to human-robot interaction

Human-robot physical interaction is an important subject for housekeeping, elderly care and entertainment robots. To make a natural interaction the entrainment between human and robot motions plays a vital role. From this view point we have proposed to use neural oscillators for human- robot handshaking [2]. However there is a drawback of the method. There are many parameters to be determined, and the effects of the parameters of the neural oscillator are related to each other. In this paper we propose to use an online design method of dynamics in human-robot interaction instead of the neural oscillators. The validity of the proposed method is examined by the simulations of handshake between two arms and of motion assist system for human leg. Then we confirmed that this method could utilize human-robot interaction.