Investigating Mixed Reality for Communication Between Humans and Mobile Manipulators

Abstract

This article investigates mixed reality (MR) to enhance human-robot collaboration (HRC). The proposed solution adopts MR as a communication layer to convey a mobile manipulator\u27s intentions and upcoming actions to the humans with whom it interacts, thus improving their collaboration. A user study involving 20 participants demonstrated the effectiveness of this MR-focused approach in facilitating collaborative tasks, with a positive effect on overall collaboration performances and human satisfaction.This paper has been published in the Proceedings of the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Human and Robot Interactive Communication (RO-MAN), Pasadena, CA, USA, August 202