Promoting mutual adaptation in haptic negotiation using adaptive virtual fixture

Purpose To promote the intuitiveness of collaborative tasks, the negotiation ability of humans with each other has inspired a large amount of studies aimed at reproducing the capacity in physical human-robot interaction (pHRI). This paper aims to promote mutual adaptation in negotiation when both parties possess incomplete information. Design/methodology/approach This paper introduces virtual fixtures into the traditional negotiation mechanism, locally regulating tracking trajectory and impedance parameters in the negotiating phase until the final plan integrates bilateral intentions well. In the strategy, robots convey its task information to humans and offer groups of guide plans for them to choose, on the premise of maximizing the robot’s own profits. Findings Compared with traditional negotiation strategies, humans adapt to robots easily and show lower cognitive load in the method, while the satisfied plan shows better performance for the whole human-robot system. Originality/value In this study, this paper proposes a novel negotiation strategy to facilitate the mutual adaptation of humans and robots in complicated shared tasks, especially when both parties possess incomplete information of tasks.