Incidental robot-human contact detection
First Claim
1. A method to guide actuator movement, the method comprising:
- receiving a feedback signal associated with a movement of an actuator;
filtering the received feedback signal to remove frequency components that have a frequency less than 7 Hz or greater than 12 Hz;
monitoring a power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal, wherein the filtered feedback signal includes information representative of a characteristic of at least one of a human or an animal;
detecting whether there is an increase in the power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal;
determining that the actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, based on a detection of the increase in the power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal; and
in response to the determination that the actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, halting the movement of the actuator.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Technologies are generally described for detection of incidental robot-human contact. In some examples, a robotic actuator movement may generate a feedback signal, such as a haptic signal, a proprioreceptive signal, an optical signal, and/or an infrared signal. A tremor detector may determine whether the feedback signal contains a tremor signal characteristic of a human, for example by determining whether frequency components in the feedback signal fall within particular frequency ranges. Upon determining that the feedback signal does contain a tremor signal characteristic of a human, the tremor detector may conclude that the robotic actuator has come into contact with a human, and may cause the actuator to halt its movement.
23 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method to guide actuator movement, the method comprising:
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receiving a feedback signal associated with a movement of an actuator; filtering the received feedback signal to remove frequency components that have a frequency less than 7 Hz or greater than 12 Hz; monitoring a power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal, wherein the filtered feedback signal includes information representative of a characteristic of at least one of a human or an animal; detecting whether there is an increase in the power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal; determining that the actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, based on a detection of the increase in the power spectral density of the filtered feedback signal; and in response to the determination that the actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, halting the movement of the actuator. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A tremor detection system, comprising:
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a sensor signal processor configured to receive a feedback signal associated with a movement of a robotic actuator; and a processor block, operatively coupled to the sensor signal processor, configured to; determine that the feedback signal includes a frequency component that has a first frequency that is at least 7 Hz and at most 12 Hz, and that includes information representative of a characteristic of at least one of a human or an animal; monitor a power spectral density of the frequency component; detect whether there is an increase in the power spectral density of the frequency component with respect to at least one other frequency component of the feedback signal, wherein the at least one other frequency component has a second frequency less than 7 Hz or greater than 12 Hz; determine that the robotic actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, based on a detection of the increase in the power spectral density of the frequency component; and in response to the determination that the robotic actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, transmit a control signal to cause the robotic actuator to halt the movement. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A robotic actuator system, comprising:
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an actuator configured to; perform a physical action in response to a control signal; and stop the physical action in response to a stop signal; a controller operatively coupled to the actuator and configured to transmit the control signal and the stop signal to the actuator; and a tremor detector operatively coupled to the controller and configured to; receive a feedback signal associated with the physical action from at least one of the actuator and the controller; determine that the feedback signal includes a tremor signal, wherein the tremor signal includes a frequency component that has a first frequency between 7 Hz and 12 Hz, and wherein the tremor signal includes information representative of a characteristic of at least one of a human or an animal; monitor a power spectral density of the tremor signal; detect whether there is an increase in the power spectral density of the tremor signal with respect to at least one other frequency component of the feedback signal, wherein the at least one other frequency component has a second frequency less than 7 Hz or greater than 12 Hz; determine that the actuator has come into contact with at least one of the human or the animal, based on a detection of the increase in the power spectral density of the tremor signal; and in response to s determination that the actuator has come into contact with the at least one of the human or the animal, cause the controller to transmit the stop signal to the actuator. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification