Human Robot Joint Walking: Planned vs. Emergent Coordination

Human-Robot coordinated walk can be planned but also emerge spontaneously. This study compared the two coordination types under low and high cognitive load. Participants (n = 67) completed a simple walk and a walk with an additional search task with a quadruped robot. One group of participants planned and maintained a coordinated walk with the robot, whereas another group simply walked with the robot with an emergent coordination. The planned coordination group had less variability in the H–R distance associated with greater dissimilarity in walking speed. The added search task was associated with increased speed dissimilarity for both coordination types, but with a respective decrease in distance variability. The planned coordination group reported a higher perceived cognitive load even with the simple walk, and the spontaneous coordination group reported an increase in perceived cognitive load only with the additional search task. The findings imply that coordinated H–R walking is associated with kinematic tradeoffs and cognitive costs.

MSC student presentation