There is consensus in academia and industry that physical human-robot interaction technology has a large potential for future robotics applications.

Our research targets the modelling of human motion and behavior within interaction tasks. One aspect is ergonomics. Based on online automated assessments using motion capture systems, we apply algorithms to learn ergonomics prediction models of humans. These allow to predict the near-future ergonomics state of the human in a given situation.

Integrating ergonomical considerations can organize robot behavior in an intuitive way and minimize the ergonomics impact on humans.

Such models are building blocks for the development of novel human-robot collaboration strategies. HRI-EU research results demonstrate technologies that allow for personalized production training on the job, as well as ergonomics-aware human-machine cooperation, and a continuous monitoring of the human’s health condition. Such novel, collaborative systems can improve the human’s working conditions at Honda production sites in the future, and increase the joy of working with collaborative robots.