A Dialogue-Based Human-Robot Interaction Protocol for Wheelchair and Robotic Arm Integrated Control

TL;DR

This paper introduces a dialogue-based interaction protocol for wheelchair and robotic arm control, aiming to improve intuitiveness and user intent understanding for assistive technology users.

Contribution

It presents a novel natural language dialogue system for assistive robots, demonstrating improved user experience over traditional manual controls.

Findings

Participants preferred dialogue-based interaction

Enhanced robot autonomy was appreciated

Successful completion of assistive tasks in pilot study

Abstract

People with lower and upper body disabilities can benefit from wheelchairs and robotic arms to improve mobility and independence. Prior assistive interfaces, such as touchscreens and voice-driven predefined commands, often remain unintuitive and struggle to capture complex user intent. We propose a natural, dialogue based human robot interaction protocol that simulates an intelligent agent capable of communicating with users to understand intent and execute assistive actions. In a pilot study, five participants completed five assistive tasks (cleaning, drinking, feeding, drawer opening, and door opening) through dialogue-based interaction with a wheelchair and robotic arm. As a baseline, participants were required to open a door using the manual control (a wheelchair joystick and a game controller for the arm) and complete a questionnaire to gather their feedback. By analyzing the post-study questionnaires, we found that most participants enjoyed the dialogue-based interaction and assistive robot autonomy.