Human-following robot using tether steering

A new human-following robot with a tether steering mechanism is proposed that could be useful in the case of carrying luggage or as a jogging companion. In a crowded or cluttered environment, tether steering has certain advantages over non-contact methods using a camera, laser range finder, or ultrasonic transponder. The proposed robot has a modular architecture that consists of a steering module and two driving modules that communicate with each other using Zigbee wireless communication technology. In addition, motion control algorithms are introduced to provide effortless maneuverability when using the tether steering. A human adaptive algorithm is proposed that estimates the user's walking velocity to allow the robot to keep pace, while an environment adaptive algorithm performs semi-autonomous navigation to avoid collision with corner shaped obstacles. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed human-following robot.