Interactions of an anthropomorphic simulated human with a simulated service robot

It is expected that robots of the future will coexist and interact with hum ans in places such as homes and offices. In order to make the interaction o f service robots with humans safe and effective, new technologies must be d eveloped, ranging from physical material design for robot bodies, to intell igent controllers. Simulation provides a convenient and efficient research environment for design, testing and implementation of service robots. This paper presents a simulated world that includes a realistic simulated human and a simulated robot which delivers and hands over an object to the human. The human is made realistic by being modeled using physiological data and anthropomorphic equations of motion. The robot's design is also based upon realistic specifications. The robot's intelligence is achieved through a nu mber of independent software agents that contend for the robot's behavior p roduction, named Contention Architecture. The proposed actions of the auton omous agents are evaluated based on a number of criteria so as to select on e action to be taken by the robot. The experimental results of the interact ion between human and robot through the task of handover is presented. It i s shown that the robot is not only capable of performing the task effective ly, but is also able to compensate for the unexpected movements of the huma n, while allowing no harm to come to the person through physical contact.