A Web-Based User Interface for HRI Studies on Multi-Robot Furniture Arrangement

This video presents a remote user interface (UI) for controlling a multi-robot furniture system intended to enable human-robot interaction studies safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The three primary features of the system are detailed. The first, a web-based architecture, allows the operation of our chair robots (ChairBots) over the internet. Second, multiple ChairBots are simultaneously operable. Third, variable levels of autonomy allow an operator to send both high-level, with robots autonomously moving to goals, or low-level motion commands. This work presents advances in the technical capabilities of our ChairBot system, representing progress towards a viable multi-robot furniture system.