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Transporting large and heavy objects can benefit from Human-Robot
Collaboration (HRC), increasing the contribution of robots to our daily tasks
and reducing the risk of injuries to the human operator. This approach usually
posits the human collaborator as the leader, while the robot has the follower
role. Hence, it is essential for the leader to be aware of the environmental
situation. However, when transporting a large object, the operator's
situational awareness can be compromised as the object may occlude different
parts of the environment. This paper proposes a novel haptic-based
environmental awareness module for a collaborative transportation framework
that informs the human operator about surrounding obstacles. The robot uses two
LIDARs to detect the obstacles in the surroundings. The warning module alerts
the operator through a haptic belt with four vibrotactile devices that provide
feedback about the location and proximity of the obstacles. By enhancing the
operator's awareness of the surroundings, the proposed module improves the
safety of the human-robot team in co-carrying scenarios by preventing
collisions. Experiments with two non-expert subjects in two different
situations are conducted. The results show that the human partner can
successfully lead the co-transportation system in an unknown environment with
hidden obstacles thanks to the haptic feedback.
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