Abstract
Comment: Accepted at the 2026 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2026)
Catch, Throw, Repeat: Planning for Human-Robot Partner Juggling
- Authors
- Jonathan Rainer Lippert, Kai Ploeger, Abir Chowdhury...
- Categories
- cs.RO, cs.HC, eess.SY
Brief
Human-robot partner juggling addresses dynamic object exchange under perception, timing, and contact uncertainty. The paper proposes a real-time system combining predictive ball tracking, adaptive online trajectory optimization via multiple-shooting, and state-machine coordination to synchronize multi-ball patterns with a human. In an 8-person study it produced reliable shared three-ball cascades and substantial record improvements, demonstrating a practical advance for physical human-robot interaction and shared autonomy.
Why it matters
Presents a real-time planning and control architecture that combines predictive ball tracking, adaptive online trajectory optimization using a multiple-shooting formulation, and a state-machine coordination logic to enable synchronized multi-ball human-robot partner juggling.
Key details
- In an 8-participant user study (beginners to experts) the system achieved shared three-ball cascades; all participants surpassed previously reported best-case results within a 10-minute session. One participant extended the prior record for shared three-ball cascades fivefold to 20 consecutive robot catches; another achieved 100% success with 40 consecutive catches in a single-ball catch-and-return task.
- Paper (Lippert, Ploeger, Chowdhury, Müller, Peters, Kshirsagar) posted on arXiv (2607.15129v1) and accepted to IROS 2026; project video: https://kai-ploeger.com/partner-juggling, PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.15129v1