Human Pointing Navigation of Mobile Robot with Spherical Vision System

Abstract

In human robot interaction, intuitive interface is necessary. A specific interaction device, for instance, a joystick or a teaching pendant, is not usually intuitive and needs trainings for a general user. Instruction by gesture is one of the intuitive interfaces and a potential user does not need any training for showing a gesture. Pointing is one of the simplest gestures. We propose a simple human pointing recognition system for a mobile robot and investigate the validity and usefulness with a real robot. One mobile robot with an upward directed camera recognizes human pointing and navigate itself to the place a user is pointing by simple visual feedback control.