Human-Robot Role Arbitration with Cooperative Game Theory

This work studies the role-arbitration between a robot and a human during physical Human-Robot Interaction. The system is modeled as a Cartesian impedance, with the human and the robot interacting by applying two separate external forces. A reformulation of the problem as a Cooperative Differential Game allows addressing the bargaining problem by proposing a solution depending on the human interaction force, interpreted as the will to lead or follow. This defines the arbitration law and assigns the role of leader or follower to the robot. Experiments show the feasibility and capabilities of the proposed control in managing the human-robot arbitration during a shared-trajectory following task.