Abstract

As the number of robots used in warehouses and manufacturing increases, so too does
the need for robots to be able to manipulate objects, not only independently, but also
in collaboration with humans and other robots. Our ability to effectively coordinate our
actions with fellow humans encompasses several behaviours that are collectively referred
to as joint action, and has inspired advances in human-robot interaction by leveraging
our natural ability to interpret implicit cues. However, our capacity to efficiently coordinate
on object manipulation tasks remains an advantageous process that is yet to be fully
exploited in robotic applications. Humans achieve this form of coordination by combining
implicit communication (where information is inferred) and explicit communication (direct
communication through an established channel) in varying degrees according to the task
at hand. Although these two forms of communication have previously been implemented
in robotic systems, no system exists that integrates the two in a task-dependent adaptive
manner. In this paper, we review existing work on joint action in human-robot interaction,
and analyse the state-of-the-art in robot-robot interaction that could act as a foundation
for future cooperative object manipulation approaches. We identify key mechanisms that
must be developed in order for robots to collaborate more effectively, with other robots
and humans, on object manipulation tasks in shared autonomy spaces.