TR2025-064

PACE: Proactive Assistance in Human-Robot Collaboration through Action-Completion Estimation

    •  De Lazzari, D., Terreran, M., Giacomuzzo, G., Jain, S., Falco, P., Carli, R., Romeres, D., "PACE: Proactive Assistance in Human-Robot Collaboration through Action-Completion Estimation", IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), May 2025.
      BibTeX TR2025-064 PDF
      • @inproceedings{DeLazzari2025may,
      • author = {De Lazzari, Davide and Terreran, Matteo and Giacomuzzo, Giulio and Jain, Siddarth and Falco, Pietro and Carli, Ruggero and Romeres, Diego},
      • title = {{PACE: Proactive Assistance in Human-Robot Collaboration through Action-Completion Estimation}},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA)},
      • year = 2025,
      • month = may,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2025-064}
      • }
  • MERL Contacts:
  • Research Area:

    Robotics

Abstract:

This paper introduces the Proactive Assistance through action-Completion Estimation (PACE) framework, de- signed to enhance human-robot collaboration through real-time monitoring of human progress. PACE incorporates a novel method that combines Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) with correlation analysis to track human task progression from hand movements. PACE trains a reinforcement learning policy from limited demonstrations to generate a proactive assistance policy that synchronizes robotic actions with human activities, minimizing idle time and enhancing collaboration efficiency. We validate the framework through user studies involving 12 participants, showing significant improvements in interaction fluency, reduced waiting times, and positive user feedback compared to traditional methods.