Conclusion

In this paper, a human-following mobile robot in ISpace was presented. First, a control algorithm using a virtual spring model was proposed for a mobile robot in order to follow a walking human whose position is estimated incompletely. The proposed model is able to absorb the gap between the motion of the human and the mobile robot. It was shown that various following patterns are possible in the proposed control algorithm. Next, cooperation between the multiple DINDs was described. The position of the human and the mobile robot in ISpace was measured with DINDs. To control a mobile robot in a wide area, cooperation of the DINDs, effective communication and role assignment are required. The handing-over protocol for a mobile robot control and the communication method with DIND for human recognition were explained. Finally, an experiment into the human-following control of a mobile robot was performed using the proposed control algorithm. It was shown that human following is easily achieved in ISpace. As a result, this research shows that the proposed control algorithm is effective in assisting a mobile robot to follow a human. Moreover, the fundamental human-following system is achieved in ISpace where many DINDs are arranged in the space.

Future studies will involve applying this system to complex environments where many people, mobile robots and obstacles coexist. Since the proposed algorithm absorbs the kinematic differences between humans and robots, any kind of mobile robot, including legged robots, can be used as human-following robots, as long as the robot is able to move at the speed of human walking. Moreover, it is necessary to survey the influence of the mobile robot which maintains a fixed distance between it and the human, introduces the knowledge of cognitive science and social science.