Robotic Devices Can Influence People to Change How They Walk Through Light Hand Contact

What is it about?

Light hand contact has great potential but has been rarely studied for the purpose of influencing walking. We conducted experiments where people walked while holding the handles of a robotic device that made short, light pulse movements. We hypothesized that these hand movements would communicate information that influences people to systematically change their own walking. We found that people changed their walking coordination as intended by the robot motions only when they were expecting walking cues from the robot, and the forces from the robot were too low to directly propel walking. When they did not expect relevant information from the robot, people intuitively controlled their arms to reject robot motions. These results suggest that people voluntarily changed their walking based on information from the robot conveyed through hand interactions.

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Photo by Rollz International on Unsplash

Photo by Rollz International on Unsplash

Why is it important?

By influencing human walking, light hand contact has the potential to improve safety, efficacy, and convenience of walking aids - such as robotic walkers - and other robotic devices to help people perform collaborative tasks - such as in manufacturing. To develop hand-contact robotic devices for walking that are both effective and easy to use, we must understand how people respond to the hand contact intuitively, without instructions or training. Our study is the first to demonstrate that light hand contact from a robotic device can be used to systematically influence human walking. The experimental approach and tests we developed allow us to study the communication of information through physical contact separate from the primary physical task of walking. Our results suggest design principles for a new type of robotic walking aid to influence human movement through informational cues.

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