Title: Enhancing Human-UGV Teaming in Transporation Tasks Using Wearable Technology
Date: Wednesday, June 5th
Time: 3 PM EST
Location: Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute (GTMI) Auditorium 101
Teams Link:
Joshua Fernandez
Robotics PhD Candidate
School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Committee:
Dr. Anirban Mazumdar (Advisor) - School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Aaron Young - School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Gregory Sawicki - School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Jonathan Rogers - School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Jason Wheeler - Distinguished Member of R&D Staff - Sandia National Labs
Abstract:
Today, the demands of various labor-intensive roles necessitate workers to manually transport equipment. Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) have the potential to offload equipment from human workers and therefore reduce human effort and elevate task performance. In this work, we investigate how wearable technology can enhance the tracking and navigation of human-robot coordination for transportation tasks. This work can be separated into three distinct aims: 1) emulate human strategies to facilitate human-UGV teaming during transportation tasks, 2) analyze the performance and energetics of human-UGV teams in transportation tasks, and 3) leverage wearable technology to enhance the tracking ability of a robot. In this thesis, we develop simulations and physical prototypes to realize our control schemes and our human-robot teaming algorithms. Additionally, we provide insight into our current progress while laying the groundwork for future experiments and development. The key contributions of this work are 1) evaluating the implementation of human-inspired following strategies on a human-robot team, 2) facilitating tracking of a target with and without a visual line of sight, and 3) analyzing the human-robot team in terms of efficiency and human energy exertion.