An Experimental Validation and Comparison of Reaching Motion Models for Unconstrained Handovers: Towards Generating Humanlike Motions for Human-Robot Handovers

The Minimum Jerk motion model has long been cited in literature for human\npoint-to-point reaching motions in single-person tasks. While it has been\ndemonstrated that applying minimum-jerk-like trajectories to robot reaching\nmotions in the joint action task of human-robot handovers allows a robot giver\nto be perceived as more careful, safe, and skilled, it has not been verified\nwhether human reaching motions in handovers follow the Minimum Jerk model. To\nexperimentally test and verify motion models for human reaches in handovers, we\nexamined human reaching motions in unconstrained handovers (where the person is\nallowed to move their whole body) and fitted against 1) the Minimum Jerk model,\n2) its variation, the Decoupled Minimum Jerk model, and 3) the recently\nproposed Elliptical (Conic) model. Results showed that Conic model fits\nunconstrained human handover reaching motions best. Furthermore, we discovered\nthat unlike constrained, single-person reaching motions, which have been found\nto be elliptical, there is a split between elliptical and hyperbolic conic\ntypes. We expect our results will help guide generation of more humanlike\nreaching motions for human-robot handover tasks.\n