Fifty years ago, robotic automation revolutionized manufacturing.  Modern factory robots, like their quinquagenarian counterparts, require humans to keep away during operation.  Safety excludes the benefits of live human-robot interaction during the assembly process.  Instead, interaction is restricted to tedious, inefficient, offline programming.  A new generation of safe robots promises to permit humans to work side-by-side with machines, yet the technology still falls far short of human capabilities for many tasks.  To increase productivity, we must reintroduce humans into assembly automation and allow them to work closely with robots as peers in order to leverage the best skills of both human and robot teammates.

In this talk, I present research in three technical themes necessary to endow robots with the capabilities to work as peers with humans.  The first theme is cooperative motion, including the ability to navigate and manipulate among people in crowded and cluttered environments.  The second theme is cooperative manipulation.  Broadly construed, this category includes the capabilities to interpret a part's or tool's function from form, reorient and attach parts together, and assemble complex objects.  Tasks may require these capabilities to be realized as an individual or collectively as a mixed human-robot team.  The third theme is cooperative communication.  To work with others, robots must be able to understand a concept of group activity and anticipate future actions.  Robots must address humans' needs and allow humans to address their needs.  I present the theory, algorithms, mechanisms, and instrumentation that will enable a collaborative human-robot assembly system.

Representative publication:  http://people.csail.mit.edu/rak/www/sites/default/files/pubs/KneEtal13.pdf 

Related video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9sYogRVF8Q