Preface

This book brings together advances and challenges in multiple exciting fields of research including human–machine interfaces, collaborative and humanoid robots, human–robot symbiosis, human–human collaboration, and robotics. Human–robot interaction has significant applications in health care, education, manufacturing, military, space exploration, and much more. This book compiles perspectives and applications in this thriving field of research. From the contributions of renowned international scientists across the world, this book discusses exciting topics such as advances in fundamental robotics and control, deep neural networks in robot grasp recognition, cooperation and adaptation between humans and robots, integration of drones in farming, and current applications in healthcare robots in smart hospitals. This book is a great resource for students, teachers, researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and readers interested in the latest developments in human–robot interaction.

The introductory chapter summarizes the advances in collaborative and humanoid robots and applications of human–robot interaction. Chapter 2 discusses EEG control of a robotic wheelchair for individuals with motor disabilities and elderly adults. Chapter 3 presents a classification of gestures in robotic hand grasp by deep neural networks. Chapter 4 examines cooperation among humans and robots in remote robot systems with force feedback. Chapter 5 describes multi-contact humanoid stability for increased interaction in unstructured environments. Chapter 6 discusses materials and sensors needed in human–robot interaction, for example, dielectric elastomer sensors capable of measuring deformation and pressure. Chapter 7 considers the design of the 5 degrees of freedom (DOF) industrial robotic arm. Chapter 8 discusses healthcare robots and smart hospitals based on human–robot interaction. Chapter 9 describes the digital inclusion of the farming sector using drone technologies. Finally, Chapter 10 discusses the European robotics league, which holds smart city robot competitions to encourage these technologies and benchmarking.

I would like to thank the authors for their immensely valuable contributions without which this book would not have been possible. I would also like to thank the staff at IntechOpen, especially Blanka Gugic, Lucija Tomicic-Dromgool, and Sara Tikel for their kind assistance throughout the editing process. I truly hope that readers will benefit from these selected chapters and increase their understanding of human–robot interaction.

**Ramana Vinjamuri, Ph.D.**

Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA

**1**

**Chapter 1**

Introductory Chapter:

Human-Robot Interaction –

Advances and Applications

Recent advances in robotic technology are bringing about robots better suited to perform tasks and applications in which robots are interacting directly with people in their everyday environments, both at home and in the workplace. Human-robot interaction (HRI) is beneficial because robots have been shown to deliver an emotional response to humans and humans find robots engaging. Additionally, robots can integrate into everyday settings without difficulty and can be perceived by humans as active social agents, meaning they can complete the programmed tasks with total control, independence, and intentionality. With HRI, a user's experience of interaction varies from person to person and is influenced by many factors such as physical context of the environment, cultural context, thoughts and feelings toward the robot,

HRI is also an important development because it allows robots to be directed by humans to complete certain challenging and hazardous tasks, notably in an industrial setting. With modern computational algorithms programmed into the environment, HRI can increase productivity and reduce downtime and task interruptions [2]. Additionally, HRI is a beneficial solution to compensate for a lack of human labor force in a certain setting, due to various factors such as extreme conditions or low pay. The lack of human labor hurts the local or large-scale economy as it means a lower production supply, and this issue can be resolved potentially by incorporating robots into the scene. However, fully replacing humans with robots would mean a larger initial investment and would eliminate availability of jobs. Instead, robots could be incorporated alongside human workers as a means to improve human comfort and optimize productivity. HRI is a significant modern approach to improve the function-

Collaborative robotics is the field of study that involves using human demonstration to teach robots different skills. The robot can learn to recognize goal-oriented actions and understand human actions and verbal and nonverbal communication. While robots can learn from imitation, in a complex environment where different

ing of everyday settings and has countless advantages and applications.

**2. Collaborative and humanoid robots**

*Helen Meyerson, Parthan Olikkal, Dingyi Pei* 

*and Ramana Vinjamuri*

**1. Introduction**

and social nature [1].

## **Chapter 1**
