Emergent cooperative manipulation of a multi-linked object

The next generation of robots is highly expected to interact directly with human being and perform physical tasks in our everyday life. In this research, we propose a novel framework of cooperative manipulation problem that is, the cooperative manipulation of a multi-linked object such as human. The examples of such manipulation are holding a kid, moving a patient and so on. These tasks mainly come from the requirement for home helper. Unlike usual cooperative control problem, here, not only the interaction forces but also the interaction locations are important to realize the successful manipulation. In this presentation, we describe the basic task requirements, conditions as well as difficulties of this task, and then show our results of 3D dynamic computer simulation.