Inferring intention through state representations in cooperative human-robot environments

In this chapter, the authors describe a novel approach for inferring intention during cooperative humanrobot activities through the representation and ordering of state information. State relationships are represented by a combination of spatial relationships in a Cartesian frame along with cardinal direction information. The combination of all relevant state relationships at a given point in time constitutes a state. A template matching approach is used to match state relations to known intentions. This approach is applied to a manufacturing kitting operation1, where humans and robots are working together to develop kits. Based upon the sequences of a set of predefined high-level state relationships that must be true for future actions to occur, a robot can use the detailed state information presented in this chapter to infer the probability of subsequent actions. This would enable the robot to better help the human with the operation or, at a minimum, better stay out of his or her way.